Sins of Youth
by Legend Maker
Summary: A Teen Titans and Incredibles crossover. New chapter, it's time to meet an old familar face. And an old unfamilar face. And someone brand new...and when you're done, you'll wish you never met her...
1. Dark Night

_**Sins of Youth**_

Writer's Note: This is a Teen Titans/Incredibles crossover, but in this first chapter, neither will appear. But they will, don't worry. Also, the Teen Titans that appear will not be the group that appears in the show, but rather my group from many stories. But if you're new, don't worry, I'll give you a proper introduction that will let you catch up without having to read all my previous work. Though I'd much appreciate it if you did anyway, heh heh.

And one last thing. I pondered whether to give this story a T or an M rating, and in the end settled on T. However, if people feel the violence in this chapter (which will set the tone for the story) is too high for the rating, I will switch it to M. If you could give me feedback on the rating in your (hopeful) review, I'd appreciate it. In any case, enough talking, let's begin.

* * *

Prelude: Dark Night

_All tales start somewhere…_

_Ours…begins here.

* * *

_

His boots were black and heavily soled, steel toes painted black to perfectly blend in with the rest of the shoe. Despite the heavy footwear, the figure's walk was almost graceful, and at least purposeful, striding down the dark, rain-blackened road. It was almost midnight, in this dark little section of the city (what city? Some city. He no longer made distinctions, all locations blending together in the quest, the quest that was finally coming to an end…) 

The night is his clothes. The dark city almost seems to wrap protectively around him. But he needs no protection. Indeed, such a concept is laughable. When he needed protection, there was none to be had. And now it was too late.

So he walked, like he owned the city and all the souls within it. And in his own way, he did. They were all within his power, should he have chosen to exert it. Another time, he might have done so. But he has a quest now. And it has been going on for far too long…

His pants seemed like a cross between jeans and leather biking pants. His shirt was a strange fusion between T-shirt and spandex. His frame was draped with the classic Neo style leather trench coat, his hands covered in black fingerless gloves. His hair was long, just past his shoulders, and also as black as pitch until the end, where the dark locks suddenly end in blood red tips, a perfect dyejob, if dye it was. And his face…

Perhaps the man is handsome. Perhaps he is average. Perhaps he is ugly.

It is quite hard to tell, because his entire face is covered in tattoos. Every aspect of his face is covered, from his forehead down to the flesh around his neck, an expert weaving of macabre images. If we could pause to study it, we could see skeletal arms and skulls, dark ankhs, interweaving black wings that seemed to flow into painted marks of clawed wounds on his cheeks, as if a raven had swooped in to attack him and was somehow absorbed into his features as it struck. On his left eye, the particular design tinted ever so slightly brighter in order to stand out, is a strange symbol that looks like a backwards h; on his right eye a straight down slash, a perfect vertical line. If biblical scholars could have studied his face, they might have been shocked that within all these interlocked designs were also the etched facial markings of a few high demons as described in the bible. All of it flowed together perfectly, not a single artistic misstep, with such detail that you wonder how long it must have taken to paint the canvas of this face with such a tableau of morbidness.

And his eyes…

They were an almost pleasant purplish blue.

In appearance anyway.

In expression…

The ice of the core of Pluto could not have been as chilling as the expression with his eyes…

And yet…as he walked down the alleyway…the figure smiled slightly. His teeth were perfect, and not the shining, movie star perfect some people would pay dentists a fortune to get. His teeth seemed naturally perfect, without any enhancement at all.

That made his expression even worse, as the figure suddenly seemed to be channeling the visage of a shark, yet with a terrifying ferocity that the dead gaze of the world's deadliest fish could never muster. No…that ferocity was purely human.

Pure predator.

And pure viciousness.

They were close.

And so he walked, his coat swirling behind him, gusted by brief winds and his own determined forward momentum.

He had long learned the intricacies of fate, and he knew that some things were inevitable. But some people would just not learn their lessons. But it didn't matter. For this, he'd gladly teach them.

He'd been pursuing too long. He needed some entertainment.

He'd get that too.

He turned around the corner. The street was empty. The people of this city, for one reason or another, remained indoors.

It didn't matter, he supposed. But he did enjoy an audience at times.

* * *

Dr. Fannon Kincaid was beginning to think of certain inevitabilities as well. Though only in a dark corner of his mind. The majority was fully occupied with the screaming desires of the reptile part of his brain, the primitive part that controlled all the basic instincts, one of which was fight or flight. Dr. Kincaid's mind was fully focused on the latter aspect, even as the tiny part of his brain, unheard but still there, was informing him there was no escape. There never had been…

Kincaid was a skinny man somewhere in his fifties, with bushy gray hair and piercing green eyes. And once…he had been what had been called a Super. However, that term didn't really apply to him. He couldn't lift cement trucks with his brain or shoot beams out of his eyes. No, his power was intelligence. He was a genius, and had proudly helped other, more true Supers with gear, vehicles, and other apparatus. Then the Supers had gone underground, and Kincaid had been forced to channel his intelligence into other fields. It hadn't been easy, as he'd liked his work, but he'd managed. When the Supers had returned, he had been given an offer by the government to go back to his old job. But by then, Kincaid had hit upon something entirely new, and he needed to devote all his time and resources to it. The government had been disappointed, but they had accepted his choice, and to ensure his safety, they had assigned him a small security force. Kincaid, upon learning the reason behind the force (worry that he could be kidnapped and forced to work against them), grew a tad bit paranoid and had shored up the force with people hired from the free market. Sometimes they weren't the most reputable people, but Kincaid figured that wouldn't be a problem if he kept them in enough money. He had plenty: his genius had proven quite lucrative in the world. He'd kept working, time had passed….

And then…

He wore a dirty lab coat over his slacks and dress shirt: he hadn't had time to change in several days. As the government had worried, someone had come after him, but not from the angle they had expected. And when the attack had come…

Indeed, it was ironic. The government had been the one who theorized about an attack, and yet the only men he had left, about a dozen or so, had been men hired by him instead of assigned by the government to protect him against said possible and now happening attack. The assigned men…he didn't want to think about what had happened to them. It was beyond belief, much like his fleeing, ending up in this dark little section of some city he barely knew, and no closer to escape when he had started, and the danger was closing in…

Because his car had broken down. He knew he should have stuck with a Japanese model. For all their arrogance, Americans could be amazingly sub par when it came to their construction…

He didn't even wait for an excuse: he was opening the door and stepping out, pulling his briefcase with him, the piece of luggage containing his life's work, the reason he was being chased so doggedly, something for which his pursuer had committed atrocity after atrocity to get. Perhaps some would ask why he didn't just hand it over, but Dr. Kincaid had a very good reason. Two of them. First had been simple professional pride: this device was the closest thing he would ever have to a child. And second had been what he had learned while he had been fleeing the last several days, as he frantically tried to piece the puzzle together of why his hunter wanted the device. Through brief phone calls and e-mail messages, he had found out just how blind to the outside world he had been these last few months, as the project finally neared completion. And now that fallacy had put him on the brink of losing everything…

And how inevitable it was, if the scraps of information he had heard were true. If everything was fact, and he had no reason to believe distortion or exaggeration had slipped into the packets of information he had received, then his pursuer was unstoppable. A Super that needed a whole new class to describe him…and quite possibly a whole new branch of psychiatric medicine…

And the rumor of WHY he wanted the Kincaid RM-X…

"No time to fix the car, run!" Kincaid ordered, as doors on two other cars opened as well. The three beat up vehicles had contained him and the last of his bodyguards, and Kincaid's car had been in the lead. The road was one-way and too narrow for the other cars to drive around it, and Kincaid wasn't getting in one of the others and turning around. He had to go forward, find another car, escape…

His remaining bodyguards stood around, briefly confused. They were from all walks of life: white and black and one Mexican, some tall, some short, some muscled and some lean. Some had actual body armor, others just had normal clothes. They all had a variety of weapons. And all of them were scared, though none would admit it.

"Come on!" Kincaid yelled, half jogging forward, desperately wanting to move but also not wanting his flank exposed. Though not loyal by nature, some of the bodyguards started jogging after him. They too, had their reasons. One was if Kincaid could escape and perfect his prototype, he had promised them all a cut of the profits, which could number in the billions. And the other was the monster chasing the doctor made no distinctions once he settled on his target: they had been in league with the doctor when he had chosen him and hence would die with him, even if they cut their ties and ran. Indeed, one of them had already tried to sell out Kincaid…and he had apparently hit a nerve in such a betrayal, as the monster had stopped his pursuit to…do…something to the traitor. All of the bodyguards were hardened men, some quite amoral, but what that thing had done…even they had been chilled. And they had just seen a tiny bit of it. They did not want to know what they had missed.

And now the one who had done such a thing was on their tails, after them.

But none of them were going to die without a fight, as they grabbed up their weapons, inserting clips, cocking hammers, and performing other preparations…

And at the back of the group, one of them finished snapping his clip into his sub-machine gun…

And then with a yelp so brief no one heard it, he was yanked back into the shadows.

"Come on!" Kincaid yelled. "These streets are a maze! Maybe we…"

CHOCK!

The sub machine guard was reintroduced to his comrades. Or at least part of him was.

As his head flew back out of the shadows and bounced along the ground before rolling to a stop.

His eyes were filled with horror.

The expression was mirrored in the face of all the men.

"Doctor…" came a calm voice from the shadows. "Let's stop this nonsense."

"AYYYAHHHHH STOP HIM!" Kincaid screamed, his word more of a terrified plea then an outright order, as he turned and sprinted away. Four of his guards followed him, perhaps in a supposed theory of protecting him, but in reality not wanting to face what had found them.

The remaining six were either braver or more foolish, as their guns all swung in the direction from which the head had come from.

The street filled with terrible noise as machine guns cut loose, tracers light up the dark street. The louder bang of a shotgun mixed with the deep throaty chatter of the automatic weapons.

The gunfire only briefly stopped when a giant belch of flame spewed out and enveloped the street, ignited the car at the back of the road, and then several small tossed objects followed.

The remaining guards retreated back down the street just before the grenades blew, blowing up the previous ignited car and causing a chain reaction as the two cars in front of it detonated themselves from the sudden intense heat. The shrapnel from the explosions caught none of the men though: they had been trained to avoid such things. Having retreated back some distance, they began slamming new ammo clips in and swinging their weapons around, looking for the threat.

They never saw it coming anyway.

As the man with the tattooed face dropped down from the sky, holding the edges of his coat, and as one of the bodyguards managed to look up the tattooed man landed behind him, even as he swung the coat out and closed it around the bodyguard.

Except it was no longer just a coat. It seemed larger, blacker, more…ORGANIC, more like a veil of muscle then a piece of attire, as it wrapped around the bodyguard. The outline of his body could be clearly seen, as it briefly thrashed, and then make a noise that MIGHT have been a scream…if it wasn't so…wet.

The other guards had turned towards the tattooed man, but all they could do was stare at the sudden new horrible sight, even as liquid began to pour out the bottom of the coat, pooling around the tattooed man's feet, as the form within the coat thrashed twice more and then went still…and then the outline vanished, even as more liquid fell at the man's feet with a splattering noise.

After several seconds, the man finally swung his coat back open.

Several things that might have been bones flew from within the coat, even as the material once again seemed to go from some kind of organic matter back to the leather of a trench coat, the tattooed man releasing his hands from the edges he had gripped.

Somehow…he'd dissolved the man. Like he had turned his clothing wrapped around the bodyguard into some kind of stomach. And worst of all…despite the mess at his feet…the man's front was pristine. As if nothing had ever happened.

"Well, that was interesting." The Tattooed Man commented.

The five remaining bodyguards finally recovered from their shock and aimed their weapons.

"Oh, do please." The Tattooed Man said.

The bullets began to fly again.

As the Tattooed Man raised his arm, his fingers aimed to the sky and his forearm pointing outward at the group, and then the limb suddenly widened out, morphing and darkening, and as the bullets flew in they suddenly met a shield, the arm having morphed into a giant wall of steel, protecting the Tattooed Man from the shots…

And then the shield shot off like it was on a spring, the arm elongating and pushing out the wall of steel, aiming it right towards one of the bodyguards, and he barely got a chance to scream before the wall slammed into him and shoved him back until his body met the hard stone of the building behind him.

It was much like a bug on a windshield.

"You don't give up, do you?" The Tattooed Man said as he withdrew the arm, even as the steel wall morphed back into a human limb (and though no one seemed to notice, the Tattooed Man seemed to grow a little taller, though if one had looked closely, that would have been due to the ground underneath him seemingly pushing him up just a tad…).

Perhaps the Tattooed Man's last sentence didn't seem so strange…if not for the fact that while he had said it, one of the bodyguards had gotten around his steel wall guard and opened fire on his body. And was still shooting.

But the bullets, when they struck, did not tear muscle and break bone, puncture organs and spill blood. Indeed, it seemed like they were striking sand, the projectiles hitting their target and having no effect as they sank into the Tattooed Man's body and disappeared, even as the Tattooed Man finished returning his arm to normal from the shape he had made it form and turned to fully face the shooter, even as said shooter ran out of ammo.

The Tattooed Man smirked with one corner of his mouth, and then aimed his palms up at the shooter…even as holes opened up within the flesh.

"You dropped these."

And the bullets spewed out from the Tattooed Man's palms, as if fired by a gun themselves. Their second trip proved to be far more effective, even as the bullets bit the hand that had fed them. Blew them off, to be more accurate.

The Tattooed Man stepped over the mess that had once been a man and found himself facing another one of the guards. Why none of them had run away by now was a question lost to time, as the latest guard cocked and aimed his shotgun at the Tattooed Man.

"Think you can?" The Tattooed Man asked.

The shotgun boomed, as the packet containing the steel fragments shot out and exploded, firing out the fragments in an expanding wave of destruction designed to rip and tear organic material to pulp…

Which the Tattooed Man no longer was, as his body suddenly faded and then disappeared into a misty fog. The pellets flew right through the mist without any effect.

The same couldn't be said of the mist, as it did something so quick that human eyes couldn't track it. A brief flick of motion, and then suddenly the mist was on the other side of the man, in mid-cock to fire another shot, as the fog congealed and then formed back into the Tattooed Man.

The most recent guard did not turn around to face him. He stood stock-still.

Before his shotgun fell apart, perfectly split down the middle.

As was the man. His falling apart was considerably messier then the shotgun's.

"No you can't. The Little Engine is very disappointed." The Tattooed Man said.

Fire bathed him, a raging inferno belching forth from the barrel of a large weapon, the wielder yelling loudly, half in a battle cry and half in insane fear. The fire consumed the Tattooed Man, and for a moment it seemed to be working, as he danced among the flames, his coat splitting apart and falling off in flaming shreds…

And then he stopped, and then, as if he had been sprayed and was still being sprayed with warm water rather then flaming napalm, he strode towards the attacking man. The flamethrower kept his burst of fire on the entire time, before the Tattooed Man approached him and knocked the belching nozzle to the side.

"I liked that coat." He said. "You'll have to replace it."

And his hand thrust forward, the fingers slamming up and against the bodyguard's forehead and upper cheeks.

The bodyguard began to scream, as his eyes rolled up the back of his head, and then his face began to dissolve, the skin and muscle melting and then being SUCKED off the bone, the once-flesh flowing across the Tattooed Man's arm and down his back, and even as the man's remaining skin and muscle began to liquidfy and be sucked off his body the material began to form around the Tattooed Man. As the organs went too, it began to solidify.

And reformed into a perfect copy of the Tattooed Man's coat, even as a perfectly dry skeleton wearing clothes and a flamethrower fell into a pile of bones at the Tattooed Man's feet.

"Thanks." The Tattooed Man said.

And then the handgun was pressing against the side of his head.

"You're dead, monster!" The seventh bodyguard snapped.

And he squeezed the trigger…

The gun exploded in the man's hand, taking most of the limb with it.

The bodyguard could only stare at the ruin of his digits, too shocked to feel the pain, as the Tattooed Man turned to face him, the last of the titanium he had turned his head into reforming back to his black hair.

"You shoot, you idiot." He said. "You don't talk, you act. Otherwise the other side will act first. And anyone who doesn't understand that…"

His hand shot out and clamped on the man's head.

The man's scream rang out and was abruptly cut off. His body fell at the Tattooed Man's feet.

"Has the IQ of a vegetable.

And the Tattooed Man walked on.

Leaving the man's body, untouched in any way…except from the neck up, where his head and brain had been transmogrified into a giant turnip.

As you might have guessed, it's hard to live without a brain.

And people didn't think he had a sense of humor, the Tattooed Man mused. Well, enough fun. It was time to catch the doctor.

* * *

The doctor was doing his best not to be caught, but his bodyguard's horrible deaths had only given him about a minute of running time. Against something like this…that might as well have been nothing. 

"HERR DOCTOR!" Came a yell, much closer then Kincaid liked. "This is pointless! If you stop and hand it over, I promise I'll consider not killing you!"

"In here!" Yelled one of the bodyguards, as he yanked Kincaid to the side, running up to the building to the left of them and punching through a heavily graffitied door. The sudden silence in the street abruptly changed to terrible noise. Apparently, the guard had spotted an old entrance to a club that was in the area. A club that appeared to have good soundproofing.

The entire place was packed with humanity, mostly young people, dressed, painted, and pierced in a way that scared the doctor almost as much as his pursuer, dancing and thrashing to a band on stage, if it could be called that: the 'band' looked even freakier then the patrons of the club. His two largest bodyguards got in front of him and began shoving their way through the mass of humanity, while the other two closed the door behind the doctor and followed behind them. The humanity was immensely tight-knit, but the bodyguards were quite strong, as they shoved and whacked their way through the masses. Anyone who wanted to protest quickly got a better idea when they saw the rather large guns the bodyguards had.

Outside in the once again silent streets, the Tattooed Man paused in front of the club door. True, he'd have no problems going through the door and the masses within…but he had a more…interesting idea.

The bodyguards had managed to shove their way through the crowd and located a door on the other side of the club. It was locked, but one gunshot took care of that, and the five remaining men spilled into the alleyway.

"Need…car." Kincaid gasped, glad to be out of the building and its immensely hot and stifled atmosphere. He pulled away from the wall as the last of his remaining bodyguards came through the door and closed it. "Come on…"

Kincaid started down the alleyway, the four remaining guards following…

Until the one at the rear took his latest step and found himself stepping not on solid ground but on something like quicksand. He yelled as he realized it wasn't just his right leg in this sudden 'alleysand', it was his body, as the ground liquefied beneath him and he began to sink, and then as the others turned and looked in shock at this sudden change the pain hit and the guard began to scream, a scream that didn't last long as he was drawn into the ground and disappeared without a trace.

The puddle of grayish liquid, looking much like wet concrete, bubbled, and then began to rise up from the ground.

"Hi there doctor!" Came a voice, as the concrete-esque material formed into the rough shape of a head. "How was the club? I'd have asked your friend here except I accidentally CRUSHED HIM INTO PASTE!"

"RUN!" Kincaid screamed, taking off at another sprint. The three remaining bodyguards didn't even bother to shoot at the ground forming back into the Tattooed Man: they took off as well, tearing out into the most recent street, even as the material contracted up fully and continued reforming into the Tattooed Man. Yes, that had been interesting. Anyone could go through or over a building, but how many could go UNDER it?

* * *

It was a dead end. The street ended in a building with no door. Kincaid stared at it for a second, lost in the rush of horror that filled him…and then he realized that while there was no door, there was a window several feet above him.

"Get me up there!" Kincaid ordered. The three bodyguards looked at each other, and then strangely dropped their weapons to do so. Kincaid appeared to be good when it came to picking talent, as one hoisted him onto the other twos' shoulders. Kincaid smashed out the dirty glass with his briefcase and crawled in, ignoring the small cuts on his hands and arms as he fell into a dimly lit and very dusty room.

"HOLD HIM OFF!" Kincaid screamed, as he got up and ran out the door of the room, not knowing where he was going but knowing he had to MOVE…

The three bodyguards looked at each other.

And then the Tattooed Man came out of the alleyway, finally having reformed himself. He cut the three remaining guards off from any exit. The only way they were getting out was through him.

So they did the only thing they could, as two of them snatched up their weapons and opened fire.

The bullets whizzed past the Tattooed Man as he calmly walked up the street. Some hit him, but they had no effect: they either bounced off or flattened against him and then fell to the ground. The remaining bodyguard who was not shooting was down on the ground assembling something…a mini missile launcher, which he brought up, locked on, and fired. The missile streaked down the street and slammed into the Tattooed Man, and he vanished in an explosion…

…and then walked out of it. This time, even his coat wasn't harmed.

One of the men cracked, and having run out of ammo for his machine gun he drew twin pistols and charged, screaming and shooting.

His last stand worked out as well as it had for Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (or their movie versions anyway), as the Tattooed Man's right arm elongated out into a steel blade.

The crazy bodyguard ran right into it, the blade plunging through him and then yanked out, the bodyguard dropping behind the Tattooed Man as the blade returned to a normal arm.

The second bodyguard held his ground but not his nerve, as he stood stock-still and emptied his machine gun into the Tattooed Man. It didn't even seem to annoy him, as he walked towards the second bodyguard, who had frantically ejected his clip and was pawing for another.

"Take a break." The Tattooed Man said, walking past the second bodyguard and slapping him lightly on the shoulder, almost in a buddy fashion. The second bodyguard looked up in shock…and then a brief flash of light flitted over him.

Then cracks spread across his form and frozen expression, and then he shattered like glass.

As what had once been a human being clattered to the ground behind him, the Tattooed Man headed for the sole remaining bodyguard, who was frantically scrabbling to reload his own machine gun, down on his knees, his hands fumbling for the parts that should be second nature for him to install…

A shadow fell over him.

He looked up upon the Tattooed Man. He let out a very unmanly whimper.

"A pity." The Tattooed Man said. "I expected more."

"……..I surrender?" The last bodyguard said, raising his hands. The Tattooed Man looked disgusted.

"And you can't even manage a blaze of glory." He commented. "You know, for a bodyguard, you make a good corpse."

And the Tattooed Man exhaled and fire belched out from within his mouth, enveloping the last bodyguard's head and upper torso, and he screamed and danced in his agony.

"Should I…should I…" The Tattooed Man debated with himself as the man ran past him, the entire top half of his body ablaze. "Ah, what the hell. You're fired."

The man collapsed, his body burning, as the Tattooed Man looked up upon the building

* * *

Dr. Fannon Kincaid had no idea where he was, what was happening, or what he was going to do. All he knew was he'd stumbled into a room filled with old boxes covered with dust, and that it was far far too quiet for him. 

A noise sounded behind him, and Kincaid whirled. He saw nothing, but he did not take his eyes from the spot, as he slowly began backing up, his briefcase clutched in his wet, trembling fingers, his eyes darting back and forth.

"You should have just stayed in place." The Tattooed Man said into Kincaid's ear.

Kincaid's scream was cut off as he whirled and found his body being enveloped in a heavy, sticky guck of some kind, as his briefcase was torn from his hands and he was shoved backwards, slammed against the wall, his torso and arms pinned by some kind of slimy gel that the Tattooed Man had transformed his arm into, even as his other arm retracted from the mess, bringing the briefcase.

"But I did enjoy the entertainment. So I suppose it wasn't all bad." The Tattooed Man said. Kincaid wanted to gasp out a protest, a scream, but he found that with the goo arm pinning him to the wall he could barely breathe.

"Hmmmm, a lock on the briefcase." The Tattooed Man said as he examined the prized object. "I'm going to assume this lock is coded. Possibly designed to destroy the device if one attempts to force the briefcase open, I assume? Nice trick." The Tattooed Man said. "Please give me the code."

The grip on Kincaid's chest loosened, and he gasped for a bit. But he did not give the Tattooed Man the code. He was too scared of the possibilities.

"…NO YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!" Kincaid gasped/screamed instead. The Tattooed Man's eyes narrowed. "I heard…rumors…what you plan to do…what you need that for! You…can't! You're toying with forces…beyond your comprehension!"

"I AM A FORCE BEYOND YOUR COMPREHENSION!" The Tattooed Man snarled back, as the grip tightened again, and Kincaid gasped once more, both at losing his air and at the fact that several tendrils had extracted from the goo arm around his head and formed into whirling and buzzing tools that could be used for nothing else but torture. "And if you don't give me the code, I promise you doctor, I will end any personal debate you may have between whether science or theology is correct, because I will personally make you long for the embrace of Lucifer IF YOU CATCH MY MEANING!"

The tools drew closer.

"AIYYYAHHHHHHH!"

"THE CODE."

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh…" Dr. Kincaid gasped, as his own personal ethics and fear for what he could unleash was overwhelmed by his animal desire to survive. "Ahhhhhhh…"

Kincaid slumped as the grip that held him against the wall loosened. The Tattooed Man knew body language enough to know when a man was broken.

"One." Dr. Kincaid said. The Tattooed Man began dialing in the code to the briefcase.

"Two. Three."

The Tattooed Man raised an eyebrow.

"Four…five."

"…So the code is…1-2-3-4-5?" The Tattooed Man said. "…Ok, not EVEN gonna BOTHER. TOO EASY."

The code went in, and the briefcase opened up.

"Ahhhhhhhhh…" The Tattooed Man said, as he peered into the briefcase. It was indeed what he had needed to complete his plan: the Kincaid Refraction Multiplier-X. It was the last crucial component so that the power in his own device could be properly focused and channeled. He closed the briefcase.

"Thank you Doctor. Was that so hard?" The Tattooed Man said as he let the doctor down.

"How…can you…" Kincaid muttered, still in shock over his own personal failing. "You were once…a…"

The Tattooed Man was suddenly right in the doctor's face.

"A WHAT?"

Kincaid's shock was washed away by the latest rush of fear.

"You were a…belonged to…come from…" He stammered. The Tattooed Man's eyes narrowed again.

"That was a long, LONG time ago. I've changed. In all aspects."

"You've…become a monster."

"No herr doctor, my power does not make me a monster. My power gives me complete and absolute control of every single atom in my being, as well as anything I touch! The only Alpha/Omega super power in this world! And you should know damn well why I have such power. This world has no one to blame but itself. The world…and them. And now…they'll pay."

"The…who…they…?" Kincaid said, and then realized whom the Tattooed Man was talking about. "My god. No."

"There is no god. I know that all too well."

"You…want that…to…for…them?" Kincaid said. "You…have no soul."

"Maybe not." The Tattooed Man said, and then he smiled. "Do you?"

And then the Tattooed Man's features dissolved and elongated out as his body became mist and flowed out into Kincaid's mouth and down within him.

Kincaid's eyes bulged with shock as he felt the terrible violation…a violation that only increased…

His last thoughts were a wish that he'd never invented the damn device. He'd wanted it to provide power for the world. But the world can produce some truly terrible things…

And fates…

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Dr. Fannon Kincaid exploded, his body blasting into a thousand small pieces, as the Tattooed Man reappeared where he had been standing, arms out, head down.

The Tattooed Man looked up. Despite the fact he had just transformed his body into mist, flowed down into Dr. Kincaid's body, and then expanded from within him, causing yet another huge mess, he didn't have a speck of blood on him.

After all, with his power, why would he?

"Well Doctor, I couldn't find a soul…" The Tattooed Man told what remained. "But in terms of death itself…most people believe, in the end, they say, it is better to go out with a bang."

* * *

He leapt from the window and floated down to the ground, having briefly altered his body so he was only slightly heavier then air, and touched down lightly on the ground. Briefcase in hand, he headed down the street. He'd rest for a bit and then do the tricky task of transporting his body back to his lair, where he could finally insert the RM-X and finish his device, and with that, finally settle all accounts. While teleportation wasn't hard for him (as the doctor had found out), long distances could be quite tricky. Best to… 

The knife stabbed into his ankle.

The pain was so sudden and shocking that the bodyguard almost got in another stab…except he didn't, as the Tattooed Man skipped away, his eyes flashing annoyance. Apparently one of the bodyguards, the one he had stabbed with his blade arm, still had some piss and vinegar left in him. Well, that could be remedied.

"…Ouch." The Tattooed Man said, as he stopped the pain impulses in his body and then sealed the wound with a thought. "It's not often I feel pain. I suppose congratulations are in order."

The Tattooed Man walked over to the bodyguard, who had managed to turn himself over onto his back (and was now getting a thought that he might have screwed up), as the Tattooed Man's leg distorted and widened out, its density increasing. As the Tattooed Man raised the limb, it finished transforming into the classic bell shape of the heavy weights cartoon strongmen were always lifting.

"So congratulations. You stepped up." The Tattooed Man said.

The weight-leg came down.

"So I did as well."

The weight became a foot and leg again, as the Tattooed Man stepped from the mess…

And heard the noise.

His arm extended out and grabbed the girl before she could move, and she shrieked as she was yanked up and pinned against the building wall, a shriek that was cut off as the Tattooed Man was suddenly in front of her.

"Well well, what have we here?" The Tattooed Man said, looking at the girl. She could have been a teen out for a good time in a place like the club he'd passed under, or a prostitute, or something else entirely. She was fairly pretty, wearing skimpy clothes and with her red hair nicely styled. The Tattooed Man didn't much care, he just wondered what she was doing hiding behind a trash can. For all his power, he couldn't read minds.

"Ah….ah…" The Redhead whimpered.

"You here to stop me too?"

"NO! NO no…" The girl moaned. "I found that man…I tried to help…but he told me to run…and then you…why…why did you have to kill him?" The redhead wept, as tears began to streak her makeup.

"Being stabbed in the ankle isn't a fair reason?" The Tattooed Man said in a reasonable tone. "In any case, he got in my way."

"Are…you going to kill me?" The girl sobbed.

"…No. No point." The Tattooed Man said, and let the girl go. She collapsed before him, still sobbing in fear. "You might want to get clear of the area. I did something that may have caused some molecular disruption, and that can be rather…unpleasant to say the least."

"…Who are you?" The girl asked.

"I have a lot of names. Most given by others." The Tattooed Man said. "If you want MY name…I prefer…the Jackal."

And the Jackal turned away from the terrified girl and walked off. He continued talking though, though whether he was still talking to the just starting to scramble away girl or to the open air was not exactly clear.

"And I'm rather tired of all this." The Jackal said. "Tired of killing people, people, Supers, everything they send against me, tired of IT ALL!" The Jackal said, with a flourish of his arms. "It was fun at first…but in the end, it was all scapegoating. The ones I really want to kill were beyond my grasp. Until now. Now…it's time for payback."

And the Jackal reached into his coat and withdrew a crumpled picture. It was old, worn, and on the verge of falling apart…but what it showed was clear.

Five people. A man, a woman, and three kids. A girl, and two boys, one just an infant. They were all wearing red outfits and black masks, and they seemed rather happy to be photographed.

The Jackal's eyes blazed.

"Time to pay for what you did to me. And it's going to be one HELL of a bang."

And then the building behind the Jackal exploded, the entire structure disintegrating in a giant blast of fire and power. Apparently Jackal had caused that disrupted molecule effect when he'd dealt with Dr. Kincaid after all.

Jackal glanced behind him at the destruction, as the falling debris began to ignite other buildings.

"I bet you thought Syndrome was bad." The Jackal said. "Believe me 'Incredibles', YOU HAVEN'T SEEN BAD."

And the Jackal turned and began walking down the street again, as the city caught fire and burned around him.

_

* * *

_  
LEGEND MAKER PRESENTS…

Pixar's The Incredibles

And Legend Maker, Bobcat, and Jedi-And's incarnation of…

DC's Teen Titans…

IN

_**SINS OF YOUTH **_

_To be continued._


	2. Schism

Chapter 1: Schism

It has been three years since the events of the Incredibles movie…

Some things have changed…

And some things never change…

* * *

Metroville. 

A street. A building. A police car.

And within the police car, two males officers sat, staring at a steel and glass ten-story building. Though the one in the passenger seat was sipping a coffee, neither was eating donuts. Just so you know.

"Man, that Luke kid was lucky. Finding out he's a Super. Why can't we ever have that kind of luck?" Complained the policeman in the driver's seat. According to his badge, his name was Officer Biggs.

"Same reason we always get these 'important' arrests." Replied the other police officer, as he sipped from his coffee. His name was Officer Wedge.

"How long have they been in there?"

"About seven minutes."

"Any need to panic yet?"

"Can't see why. It's been quiet."

"Yes, but these things are usually over in three or less."

"Yeah, but that bastard's tricky. You saw what he did. It is, after all, why we once again have drawn the marvelous duty that is 'Super-watching'." Wedge replied, and took another sip of coffee.

You are probably wondering why Officers Biggs and Wedge are alone. You see, after the Syndrome incident, Supers once again began to emerge from the shadows the governments had forced them into to avoid the myriad of frivolous lawsuits that had cropped up eighteen years ago. The attack of the Underminer (also beaten down by the Incredibles) convinced the government that they had been lucky for a while, but Supers weren't going away and even if you tried to ban them there would come a time when they would choose to use their powers. It was human nature, after all. The government, in the end, decided it would be easier to let the Supers out and practice their powers in a lawful way rather then trying to repress them and risk another Syndrome or worse, a group of high level power Supers deciding they'd had enough and attacking the country. That whirlwind of decisions and retreads and general bureaucratic nonsense had lasted about eighteen months, during which the Incredibles and the police of Metroville hadn't been on the best of terms. But once the laws were in place that let the Supers return and new faces began cropping up, the Metroville police had quickly realized that it was better to work WITH the Incredibles rather then against them. Especially since some of those new faces were villains who could laugh off being clubbed, maced, tasered, or shot (and in one really bad case, all of the above). So these days, the police had a tenuous alliance with the superhero family.

One of the factors of that alliance was Super battles. The police had VERY quickly learned that attacking Supers in large groups usually just ensured the rogue Super or villain would just have plenty of targets to choose from. But at the same time, they couldn't just run away: they were supposed to protect the city, and had done a fine job of it before people who could rip apart cars with their bare hands and shoot beams from their brains had started showing up. So the police compromised. When a situation that pretty much ensured the Incredibles would show up, the police would do what they could until they did and then redraw back a bit and leave one lone car manned by two officers while the rest stayed a street or two away. If the Incredibles won, the officers left there made the arrest and all was well. If the villain proved to be harder then that…there was minimum collateral damage. It was the best of a bad situation, over all.

Not that that made the two officers who got assigned to such things any happier. It was either boring or terrifying. Neither was a fun state to be in.

"Say, have you seen that Invision lately?" Officer Biggs commented. In the three years since the Incredibles had returned, only Violet had changed her name. Bob was still Mr. Incredible, Helen was Elastigirl, Dash was Dash (Or The Dash, and how people never made the connection showed how dense people can naturally be), and Jack-Jack was Jack-Jack because Helen refused to let him go on any missions despite his developing powers (She probably had a fair clue: Jack Jack may one day be a very powerful Super but at the moment he was only four years old. But then again, she was still hesitant to allow Violet to join them, and Violet was nearly an adult). Violet, after much wavering, had chosen a Super name: Invision, a cross between the word invisible and envision, which meant to visualize aka see something. The combined word created a nice irony, and also was not thought of by me. It was thought up by the author TheFLHurricane. I'm just borrowing it Hurricane. Really. Quit yelling at me! Oh right, the fic.

"Kinda hard." Wedge snickered.

"Yeah I know, but when she's NOT invisible, I mean whoa! She's still too thin, but man, she's starting to develop some real legs! Still flat as a board though, but that just makes her a real carpenter's dream…"

Wedge whacked his partner on the shoulder.

"Ow! What was that for!"

"One, she's seventeen. Two, even if she was older, I doubt you'd see your next birthday if Mr. Incredible overhears you talking about his daughter that way."

"What? He doesn't have super hearing!"

"He's a father. You don't NEED special powers to have that."

An awkward silence.

"…Hey, you know what they call a Quarter Pounder in France?" Biggs finally said.

"That stopped being funny about a decade ago Biggs." Wedge said, as he finished his coffee and rolled down the window to toss the cup away.

"Oh." Biggs replied. "You know, something occurs to me. What DO they call a Whopper in Fr-"

CRASH!

It was a good thing Wedge had finished his coffee: he probably would have spilled it all over himself at the sudden noise, had it not been finished and had he not been leaning out the window to throw the crumpled cup away, said crumpled cup falling from his fingers as his head jerked up to find the source of the sound.

What Officer Wedge had missed (which had in turn caused the noise) was the window smashing outward as two figures flew out from it. Officer Wedge managed to get his head up just in time to see them separate, as the two seemed to float in the air for a second, belying powers they didn't have, and then gravity seized them, and they plummeted down.

Or rather, one did.

For the second figure flipped himself over, in sight only for a brief moment as he gestured below him, and then he disappeared. The angle wasn't good enough for Officer Wedge to see what had happened to the second figure: the air beneath him had suddenly split open like a paper bag, a hole opening in reality that revealed crackling white energy, a hole that the figure fell into and disappeared.

For half a second.

For then a second tear ripped open in front of the cop car, several feet above the ground, and the figure fell through it, landing lightly as the rip immediately closed up.

The other figure didn't get such an easy trip, as he landed a second later.

The noise of the impact rang through the street, even causing it to ripple a bit, as the second landing figure was driven to his knees, his hands planting against the ground. He remained in the kneeling position for a second, breathing heavily, even as Officer Wedge pulled himself back into the car and looked at a shocked Officer Biggs.

The kneeling figure was the larger of the two, a massive frame balanced on legs that seemed a little too small for their own good, compared to a set of huge shoulders and a chest that didn't exactly ripple with muscle but was still firm and unyielding rather then saggy. The figure, the man, was clad in a skintight red outfit with black briefs, gloves, and boots, and he shook safety glass from his thinning blonde hair as he started to stand up. His eyes were covered in a simple black mask, but while the mask somehow hid identity, it did not hide the intensity that glowered in those deep blue eyes.

He was Bob Parr, aka Mr. Incredible. And he wasn't very happy, as he continued to get up, his knees popping explosively. In moments like this, he missed the days of his youth, back when he could leap off a fifteen-story building and the only thing that suffered in his landing was the concrete. The fall he had just made had been a shade under seven stories, and while his legs weren't actually injured, they hadn't much liked the landing. For all his training, Bob couldn't turn back the clock, and the fact remained that a man in his mid 40's was more then a few years away from his physical prime. Still, it would have been worth it…if his charge had worked in its intent to end the fight. It hadn't, and Bob knew it, for even as he glared at the figure before him, it spoke.

"Ah…good to know your body hasn't crossed over the peak to senility yet, Mr. Incredible." Said the villain before him. While Mr. Incredible was a giant, the man facing him was lean, his muscles tight and compact rather then large and showy. He was wearing a skintight blue and black outfit, and over his chest, arms, and legs was a sleek metal and plastic apparatus that was clear in some areas to show glowing parts underneath. His head was shaved bald, and his scalp and face were zig-zagged by several long, deep scars. He didn't look too bad, and while the look in his eye wasn't exactly nice, he couldn't be said to be outright malevolent. More like mischievously amused, as he stroked a scar on his chin.

Bob growled, a little in pain and more in attempted intimidation.

"It'll take a better man then you to take me down, Schism." He retorted.

"Wanna bet?" Was Schism's short reply, as he took his hand away from his chin and rubbed the fingers together in the way some people do to indicate confidence.

Though he hated to admit it, Bob had to wonder if Schism didn't have due cause to believe his last comment. His real name was Trevaine North, and Bob had actually fought him before, nearly twenty years ago, just before the Supers had been put away. Back then, Trevaine had been a scrawny kid with greasy hair who called himself Hole. The name, while stupid and immature, was apt: Trevaine's powers allowed him to open small dimensional rips, holes in reality, and transport himself and other objects through them. He'd graduated from copping feels to petty theft with his power, and then he had started getting ambitious and tried to do some serious robbery. Mr. Incredible had fought him twice in those days, and they had been easy battles. Trevaine's powers only let him open up small holes, about the size of a basketball at most, and he could only transport a maximum distance of about twenty feet. Not bad if you want to pocket a watch, but very bad if you want to rob a bank. Not to mention Trevaine was obnoxious and a pervert, and tended to throw temper tantrums. All in all, an aggravating but far from dangerous foe. When the Supers went underground, Trevaine had disappeared and Bob had forgotten all about him.

And then, about a year ago, Trevaine had resurfaced.

And boy oh boy, had the seventeen years changed him. In place of the scrawny kid with greasy hair was a muscled, scarred man. Bob had heard rumors that some Supers, rather then go underground, had been drafted into service by the government, their powers being used for the black ops stuff writers like Tom Clancy was always penning works of fiction about. In examination, powers like Trevaine's would seem perfect for such work. If he could be properly taught.

And that certainly appeared to be the case, as Trevaine was now a calm, cool, collected adult, completely secure in his abilities. Which was great, except apparently whoever had Sam Fisher-ed him had either lost track of Trevaine or they had let him go to do what he pleased (and if he had been doing Delta Force style operations, who knew what dirty secrets he might have within his mind that allowed him to do such things with retaliation), as Trevaine had made his way back to Metroville to pick up where he left off: robbing banks and the usual places that villains robbed.

Though as Bob had learned, it wasn't for the money. Indeed, while Trevaine, now with the much better name of Schism, did steal and raid, he didn't seem to care much if he lost the money in the process of escaping. Despite his new training and the greater powers that had resulted, Bob and his family had defeated Schism several times. The last time had actually been Dash and Violet alone. And each time, Schism had disappeared from prison, despite the attempts to rein in his warping powers, and showed up a bit later to try again. And while he would gladly fight (or rather, use his powers to ensure he didn't have to) with Bob and Co, he never seemed interested in hurting them or getting revenge for his previous defeats. Indeed, he seemed to going through the motions of being a villain more for something to do rather then any real evil intent.

That didn't make him any less dangerous though. Schism did not go out of his way to harm people, but he was quite capable of doing it if he deemed it necessary. And unfortunately, as Bob had found out, he was not the type to blame his defeats on those who had beaten him. After losing to his children, Schism had clearly decided he needed to take a look at his powers and tactics and see where he could improve.

And the proof was in the pudding, or rather the outfit that Schism was now wearing over his costume. Whatever it was, it enhanced his abilities. Bob had already gotten a clear look at that fact, as Schism's ability to open faster, larger warps that went farther and in some cases through solid objects (something Schism had never done before, as line of sight was generally needed for teleporting. If you teleport, in any way, and aren't careful, you'll end up warping into the same space as a solid object. Such an action would result in your quick and very messy death. Schism's new 'warp to where he couldn't see' either indicated a newfound cockiness/insanity or some kind of improvement granted by his suit, and since the former was out of character for the man Trevaine had become, Bob had guessed it was the latter, probably a device in the vein of a bat's sonar) had caused Bob to chase him all the way up through the building of the bank Schism had robbed. And he had gotten nowhere, as Schism and the belt with pouches stuffed with money (no sack over the shoulder with a dollar sign for Schism, oh no, he was up to date on everything) had constantly eluded him. Finally, Bob had tried a blind charge hoping to catch Schism off guard. It had, and they'd gone through the window.

And as you know, Schism had landed better then Mr. Incredible.

The older Super wasn't close to being beaten though. Though he seemed to hold human life in higher regard then some of the villains Bob had fought, Schism still broke the law. And Mr. Incredible upheld the law.

He was going to try anyway.

Whether or not the officers known to us as Biggs and Wedge were going to do was another story.

"He's still fighting him! Think we should help?" Wedge asked.

"Are you kidding? Do you remember what happened to Officer Dack? No way!" Biggs replied.

"Well look. Mr. Incredible doesn't seem injured or banged up, and he doesn't seem afraid of the villain. Maybe we can help!"

"And maybe we better start the car and drive away!"

"And that won't get his attention any less then confronting him will?"

Biggs paused, then groaned/growled inwardly.

"All right, fine! I hope this doesn't crash and burn…" Biggs complained.

"Ready…" Wedge said.

"FREEZE! POLICE! PUT YOUR HANDS ON YOUR HEAD NOW!" Biggs roared as he got out of the car and aimed his sidearm at Schism, Wedge mirroring him. For all his doubts, Biggs could talk the talk.

Walking the walk however…

Schism glanced over to the policemen. He smirked with one corner of his mouth.

"Such heroic nonsense."

And Schism gestured at the men.

Wedge was about to squeeze the trigger when the ground beneath him was suddenly gone, and with a sudden yelp he found himself falling, his car door passing past his eyes…and then suddenly he was in a brief field of shifting colors, and his head buzzed with vertigo…and then he was suddenly falling again, and landing. The good news was, the landing was soft. The bad news was, the landing place smelled horrendous.

"Wedge! You…!" Biggs yelled, as he watched his partner vanish.

Much like someone beforehand, he should have been using the time he was using to yell to shoot.

As Biggs suddenly found himself falling, just like Wedge…and ending up in the same Dumpster Schism had dumped Wedge into, his fall knocking the lid shut. A loud stream of curses came from within the garbage receptacle.

"There…now that that's settled…" Schism said, as he lowered his hand and turned back to Mr. Incredible. "You were saying something about beating me, old man?"

"Hunh." Bob replied. "I might be older Schism, but time has done nothing to slow me down. Indeed, all it's done is give me the experience and wisdom needed to beat the butts of people like you."

"Really? Because you seem to be a tad slow in implementing that knowledge." Schism replied. "And second of all, Mr. Incredible, your kids aren't here. You can say ass if you want too."

"A true man does not need a vice as mean and low as profanity to put across his point."

"Perhaps not, but while your overall repartee might have improved with time Mr. Incredible, I have yet to see an equal improvement in your skills."

"Oh, you haven't BEGUN to see what I can do!" Bob said, as he body hunched a bit, his fists out and ready, a classic boxing/brawling stance. Schism smirked again.

"Something you SHOULD learn, old man. You speak of improving yourself, and you may yet be revealed to speak the truth. But a factor you should always contemplate is the fact that such things as progress do not exist exclusively in your domain!"

And the fist shot at the back of Schism's hand, the arm that possessed it elongating out like rubber and aiming right for the back of Schism's skull.

As Schism stuck his right hand over his left shoulder and gestured, and a small rip opened behind his head, the fist shooting through it. Mr. Incredible only had half a second to goggle at the fact that Schism had somehow seen the blow coming when the air tore open in front of him and the fist shot out, catching Bob right between the eyes and sending him tumbling back. Mr. Incredible, older or not, was still very tough, but part of toughness is self-awareness. Even the mightiest warrior could be knocked down if caught off guard, and Bob had been so, completely.

"B…Mr. Incredible!" Helen screamed as she watched in horror. She'd hit her own husband, and to make it worse, as he tumbled back, Schism turned on his heel, facing Elastigirl, looking quite pleased at his maneuver. As her arm was withdrawn back through the rip Schism had opened, Schism gestured at it and it closed. He did not seem to notice Helen's shocked semi-slip of nearly calling Bob by his real name.

"Ah, Elastigirl. So nice of you to drop by…and so rude of you to attack me from behind. Is that not the usual motif of my so called breed?" Schism taunted. "It appears I shall have to remind you of your so called higher calling. I will utilize no such tactics: I strike from the front."

"And I'll make you regret it!" Helen snarled as she slashed out a leg at him, the limb extending out and lashing like a whip. Schism jumped over it and did a one handed cartwheel away, and as he regained his feet Elastigirl coiled back the leg she had just used to attack, balanced on it, and then sent her other leg stabbing out at Schism like a battering ram. The limb once again plunged into a white void summoned by the villain, but Helen had expected that, and even as she had struck she had been specially coiling the leg bearing her weight in a certain way, and as Schism stepped away and back from the void he had made to dodge her last attack she finished her preparation as her leg folded beneath her like a spring and then shot her forward towards Schism. His look of alarm was worth all the trouble.

"Heads up!" Helen yelled. What she really wanted to yell was she knew Schism, knew that he could only form one warp at a time, and with him having used up his warp to deflect her forward kick he was wide open, he'd never be able to close the original warp and open another in time, but she would never have the time to yell all that in her very brief trip…

And it's probably best that she didn't, as she would have looked very foolish, as Schism's alarm morphed into calm amusement and he snapped out his arms in front of him.

And Helen found another warp opening up in front of him, and her eyes widened, but it was too late to do anything as she flew into the tear, her leg being yanked out of the original one and following her body into the portal, one that Helen had not expected to form there as she thought she had used up the sole one Schism could summon at a time. Which was usually the case.

Not any more though, as Elastigirl vanished completely.

Mr. Incredible was finally getting his senses back when the tear opened up near him and his wife flew out, none of her momentum interrupted. Unfortunately, her target had changed from a human being to a steel and reinforced glass wall.

Thud.

"H-ELASTIGIRL!" Bob yelled/screamed, almost slipping himself as he ran over to his wife.

"Don't assume my esteemed foes." Schism said. "I'll be going now."

The fact that Schism immediately turned tail and ran no longer concerned Bob Parr. He was infinitely more concerned with his wife, as he ran over and knelt by her side, as she groaned slightly and rolled over. His panic quickly faded: she seemed ok. She may have crashed face first into a steel wall, but Helen was well trained enough to utilize the practice of going limp before impact with objects, a tactic that could help in lessening or preventing injury. Combined with Helen's natural rubber-esque state, it was even more effective. But she had still crashed face first into a wall. No one found that much fun.

"Helen? You ok?" Bob asked.

"Mmmmmm…ow." Helen said, as she blinked, trying to refocus the two blurry Bob's she saw into one. "I'm fine. Just a bruise."

"You sure?"

"Yes. Stop Schism!"

"You got it." Bob said as he got back to his feet.

"Bob!" The name was a whisper, just in case. Bob looked back at his wife, who was still rubbing her forehead.

Her eyes were clear enough though.

"PUT HIM DOWN. HARD."

"Yes ma'am." Bob said, and took off after Schism. And while his son was the fast one in the family, Bob Parr did the force of speed proud as he pursued his foe.

He caught up to him within a block: Schism was apparently only warping for brief jumps and using his feet for the rest of his escape. A mistake, as he disappeared around a corner. Bob chased him around it and found him reappearing in the middle of the street. Not able to help himself, he roared: he wanted Schism to know what was after him.

Schism didn't seem too perturbed, as he turned to look at Bob.

"Well. I guess playing on your softer side wasn't as effective a tactic as I expected. I guess I shall have to employ more traditional methods." Schism said, and snapped out his hand at Bob.

And…nothing happened.

A pause.

"…Oh dear." Schism said, and gestured at Bob again. Nothing, again. Bob arched an eyebrow, his anger briefly forgotten in his confusion.

"This is NOT a good time…" Schism said as he pulled his arm inward and began typing at the machinery on the limb. It finally hit Bob: his gear was glitching. And since nothing had happened, it appeared that Schism's enhanced power came at the cost that he couldn't use it at all if the machinery failed.

That was the only cue Bob needed, as he took off down the street, charging at Schism like a rogue bull.

"Thisssssss…could be bad." Schism said as he frantically punched buttons, not looking at the approaching Mr. Incredible…at least not until the charging Super was five feet from him, arms out.

"NOW I'VE GOT YOU!" Bob yelled, as he grabbed for Schism.

Whose worriment had abruptly vanished.

"Psyche."

And then the warp tore open behind Schism, and instead of grabbing him Bob found himself shoving Schism back into it, unable to interrupt his momentum any better then his wife could, as the two of them disappeared into the white hole. It closed shut behind them.

Schism had been playing possum. His gear was working fine. He'd just pretended the opposite was true to sucker Bob in.

For what was about to be revealed, as two new holes opened up.

One did so in the air, several feet above and parallel to the ground, from which Schism dropped.

The other opened up several foot from where the original had been…and facing at a different angle, as Bob ran out of the hole and, like his wife, found his target had changed. But there were three key differences between him and her. One was the fact that he was running, not flying. Another was the fact that he'd built up even more of a head of steam then his wife had. And the last was the fact that Bob Parr wasn't quite as well trained in such tactics as going limp to avoid injury as his wife was.

So when Bob saw the stone wall rearing up before him, and unable to stop in time, he reacted instinctively: protect himself, as he put his head down.

Bad idea. For while the stone wall might have easily stopped a normal man…this was Mr. Incredible.

Bob smashed right through the wall, crashing through the old rock like it wasn't there, his power propelling him through the corner of the building and reducing the whole thing to crumbling wreckage. Dusty smoke plumed from the crash, and Bob vanished for a second.

Schism watched.

And then coughing came from the smoke, and then Mr. Incredible emerged, a bit dusty but no worse for wear.

"Did you think that was all it would take to stop me!" He yelled at Schism, his anger at what Schism had done with his wife compounded with the fact that his new powers had just caused Bob to cause property damage, something he hated to do, because you never knew if another frivolous lawsuit was around the corner.

"You? No." Schism replied.

And then a low groaning noise filled Bob's ears. He looked up behind him.

"That building you just smashed through…that I'm more certain of." Schism replied.

Bob gaped. Schism apparently had greater observational abilities then he thought. He hadn't just caused Bob to smash through the corner of any building: he had picked a structure that apparently needed the corner Bob had smashed as a load bearer. Without it…it was very slight, but Bob could see that the building was starting to sag, just a bit…on a route to full blown collapse.

Or at least, that would have been the case, as the building began to lean down just a tad…and then powerful hands were up against it, as Bob ran back into the wrecked corner and propped up the building with his arms and body. It was a strain, but nothing he couldn't handle.

The only problem was…he couldn't move. If he left, the building would resume it's sagging-on-route-to-collapsing. And as he stood there, Bob realized that was exactly what Schism had planned.

"Mr. Incredible!" Elastigirl said as she dropped down onto the street from a building and found her husband propping another one up. She looked from him to Schism, and her eyes narrowed in anger.

"Hmmmmm, looks like you alone aren't enough to hold that up." Schism replied. Elastigirl looked back at the building, and saw that despite Bob's great strength it was still shifting, just a bit. In a brief panic, she leapt over and also propped herself under the building…and then realized that if her husband couldn't hold it up, she wasn't going to stave off the inevitable any time soon. That didn't stop her though, as Bob looked at her in a "What are you doing" expression.

"Ah, the ever classic dilemma. Chase the villain and risk the lives of innocents, or remove that risk and any chance of success on the previous choice." Schism said. "I already know what choice you'll make. Tah tah for now."

And once again, Schism turned and headed off down the street. This time, no one chased him.

"What are you doing!" Bob said.

"Helping YOU. That's what couples do you know!" Helen shot back.

"I can handle this!"

"Oh no, I'm not leaving you here to be noble in the course of having a building collapse on you!"

"But he's getting away!"

"No…" Helen said, as one of her thumbs elongated and snaked down to her waist, on which her belt rested a small button. She pressed it. "He's not."

* * *

"Why are we still not allowed on missions?" Dash complained. 

"Because Mom and Dad are worried about us, they don't want us to get hurt, we're still their babies despite our ages, and that will always be the case because they're good parents, no matter how skilled we may become with our powers. That's the answer Dash, it was the answer five minutes ago, and the next time you start whining, it will still be the answer!" Violet replied, her voice calm but with an edge of terseness. Dash screwed up his face a bit, as he pondered whether to sulk or start annoying his big sister to cover up the fact she was right.

Violet's expression as she turned back to where she was watching the street from her position on the third story building made him decide to do neither.

Not much had changed with Dashiel Parr during the past three years. He could still move and run fast, he was still an expert at annoying his sister and teachers, and he still referred to himself in the third person half the time. Though 13 now, he was still a rather short kid, a fact that greatly irritated him. His father told him he was a late bloomer, that he himself had been a beanpole until he was nearly fifteen, at which point his growth had seemingly kicked in overnight, followed swiftly by the first emergence of his powers (powers at birth seemed to be a child of Supers thing). Maybe it was true, but it still irritated him. And not just because he was teased at school by some of the meaner jocks (Dash ignored them: he could literally run rings around them if he chose to, and that was satisfaction enough. Well, that and the occasional zip-wedgie). No, the fact that Dash was still rather small meant that he couldn't put much power behind his blows, an aspect that had proven to be a liability a few times (so what if you could punch a villain fifty times in two seconds, if he just felt like he was being poked?). An infuriating facet of his body, indeed, but one Dash lived with. After all, for all his speed, he couldn't speed up time, and besides, even if he couldn't hit hard, that was what his family was for. He'd be the one that was hard to hit. No, all in all, the Dash had a pretty good life.

Violet, or Invision, might have claimed the same…until recently. It was that recent event that showed on her face now, even as she tried to conceal it. But this was something even her powers couldn't obscure. And it kept Dash from sulking or annoying her. For all his impertinence, Dash did know when it was time to keep ones mouth shut. Especially in an area as delicate as this.

Nearly three weeks ago, Tony Rydinger had broken off his relationship with Violet. His reason had been the classic 'I think we should just be friends.' Line.

Bastard.

The sad thing was, Dash understood the true reason, though he hadn't been able to bring himself to tell Violet, who had been pretty depressed about the whole thing, thinking it was her fault, and she was still working through it. You would think that would provide Dash with more then enough motivation to tell her what he knew, but that was not the case. He had a good reason not to tell her, despite the fact that she blamed herself. Telling her the truth might just worsen that self-accusation, not to mention that his mom had barely talked his dad out of doing several not exactly violent but far from pleasant things to Tony for his decision: if Dash talked, he might get worked up again, not to mention what Violet would think. True, this wasn't an absolute: it could very well help her…or it could make her even more depressed.

It was complicated, and it made Dash's head hurt. He wished he could go back to teasing Violet about her relationship, rather then struggle with the knowledge of why it had failed.

In the end, the breakup hadn't been due to anything Violet had done. Well, mostly. The only thing Dash could possibly attribute to her was the fact that she had told Tony about her powers about a year ago. She had wanted to be completely honest with him, and not have anything to hide, in order to make sure the relationship had strong grounds rather then ones built on falsehoods. In retrospect, she probably should have listened to Lucius when it came to secret identities and whom you should reveal them to.

Because Violet had fallen prey to hundreds upon hundreds of years of social engineering, or rather, Tony had. Oh, it had been very slight at first, and it was a wonder the almost-always impatient Dash had picked up on it, but he HAD noticed it: a discomfort around Violet that Tony had never shown before. A discomfort that had only grown, a discomfort Violet had been completely oblivious to, until it had finally come crashing down on her head. To her, Tony had broken up with her because of something she had done. But the irony was, what had attracted Tony to Violet in the first place had also been the reason he had broken it off with her. He had been attracted to her newfound confidence after the Syndrome incident…and broken it off when he found out the reason behind said confidence was her powers.

At the heart of it, Tony had found his manhood being challenged. For all the efforts of feminism and such, a part of Tony hadn't been able to handle that his girlfriend could form shields that could stop cars in their tracks. After two eons of men being told they are gods and women were there to serve them, one cannot undo what had almost become a natural by birth mindset within a century. In the end, Tony had given in to that weakness and left Violet, breaking her heart.

On one level Dash was quite angry at Tony for doing it, but on another he couldn't help but understand it. Tony was a jock, a person surrounded by testosterone and forever being challenged to prove himself by his fellow males…and then his thin almost frail girlfriend revealed she'd been tangling with forces that could turn the greatest football squad into so much paste. Oh, he had tried, Dash supposed, which is probably why it had continued on for another year, but in the end, whatever voices that were speaking in Tony's head had made him choose: did he kick Violet to the curb or stay with her and live with the fact that her powers would ensure she'd always, in some form or another, wear the pants…

No, Dash couldn't blame him.

That didn't mean he hadn't chosen wrong, as far as Dash was concerned. But he couldn't change what had happened, or change who Tony was. The sad thing was, Dash had thought Tony was stronger then that. And considering how Tony's eventual weakness had affected him, he hated to know what it might have been doing to Violet. She was the one who had to move on, and it's always hard to move on when people are revealed to be much weaker then you expected and hoped for.

In a way, Dash was reminded of the plotline of one of Violet's favorite shows, Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Writer's Note: I have heard theories that the Incredibles take place in the 70's or so, but unless I see an actual date I will assume it happened in modern times and the retro style was just that, a style), which Dash would never admit to watching but did. The show had had a very similar plotline like what had happened to Violet. During the first three seasons, the main character, Buffy, had been in a relationship with a character called Angel, a vampire with a soul. The fans had taken to the relationship with great fervor, but the writers had ultimately decided that it couldn't last and had broken them up at the end of the third season, as Angel was spun off into his own show and left the Buffy cast. The relationship, as mentioned, had been idolized by most fans, obsessively, and as a result they had been prepared to immediately hate the next relationship Buffy had gotten into. That had happened the next season with a new male character called Riley. The amount of hatred and abuse the fans had promptly heaped upon Riley was absolutely ridiculous. He was not a bad character, and Dash had actually thought he had provided a matching opposite to Buffy quite well, but he wasn't Angel, and that was all the fans needed or cared for. Though how much so Dash didn't know, he was certain that all the venom directed towards poor Riley was part of the reason that the writers had broken up that relationship within a season. It was doomed from the start, with all the Buffy/Angel Forever fans.

However, despite the fact that the writers had finally (in some way anyway) caved to all the fan pressure, the reason they broke up the couple had struck Dash as rational. Rather then suddenly revealing a huge flaw Riley had been concealing the whole time, in the end it had fit the character. Riley had been the classic corn-fed farm boy, and part of him had instinctively believed the whole men do the work/women have the babies mindset that had been put forth for so many years. In the end, he had wanted Buffy to need him, and Buffy, the Slayer, couldn't, not in the way he wanted. Denied of this irrational but important factor, Riley had drifted away from Buffy and eventually left to re-join the military he had come from. One should note that Buffy found out Riley was leaving and, despite the fact she couldn't need him the way he wanted, she still deeply cared for him and had chased after him to try and get him to stop. But in the end, she had been too late, as Riley was airlifted out of the town via helicopter and out of the Buffy canon as a regular. One should also note that Riley had seen Buffy as he was being taken away and had chosen to ignore her and her efforts to get him to stay. And hence had ended Buffy/Riley, much to the fans' happiness.

It was a lot like Tony and Violet. A small part of Tony wanted Violet to be the lesser in the relationship, and when Violet had proved she would never be that lesser, that small part had eventually grown to the point it had become the driving force in his decision. In a small way, Tony hadn't been able to help it. To quote another character from the Buffy show, 'Nothing can defeat the penis!'. And when something was revealed to do just that, Tony took his ball and went home.

He wished he could tell his sister what he knew, but there was a difference between the lengthy narrative that had just been delivered and what would actually come out of Dash's mouth. A great one. It was a delicate thing to tell someone, that a person you loved had stopped loving you back because he had become intimidated by you, and Dash had a feeling he wasn't up to the task. And he couldn't tell his dad, because his dad would just want to kill Tony, and he couldn't tell his Mom, because of a combination of the previous two factors. So for the moment, Dash bore his knowledge in silence, and did not bother his sister as she watched the street.

He hoped Tony realized he had made a terrible mistake and came crawling back. He wasn't sure if he wanted Violet to forgive him or kick him to the curb yet. With his continued pondering on whether and how he should tell Violet what he knew, that was a secondary thought.

Little did he know that Violet knew the very facts that Dash was struggling with. She was far from a dunce, and it hadn't been hard for her to piece together the reasons things had fallen apart and how they related to her. But she had kept silent, for her own reasons. Even if she could accept that this had been a flaw on Tony's part, not hers, she had still loved him, and what he had done had hurt. She wouldn't blame herself (despite what Dash was getting a vibe of), but it still hurt, not to mention the fact that even if she moved on, this situation could just repeat itself. The insecurities of men, after all, were legion…

So she watched, as did Dash, in silence, trying to focus on the task at hand. Even though she was basically doing the equivalent of twiddling her thumbs while her parents did the heavy lifting, she knew very well that could change in an instant. So for now, she was Invision. The problems of Violet Parr could wait. And for all the fangirls of the Tony/Violet 'ship, you can put away the napalm because this is my plot, I'm going somewhere with it, and all the flaming in the world isn't going to make me change my mind! Oh right, the fic.

In the end, Invision was saved having to wait long, or having her brother finally put aside his conundrum and resume annoying her to pass the time, as her waist buzzed. Or rather a tiny device on it did.

"We have something." Violet said, as she stood up and swept her hair behind her to get it out of the way.

"What?"

"Don't know, general signal…" Violet replied.

And then he appeared, out of nowhere, literally, as a rip opened on the street in the distance and Schism popped out. He hit the ground running.

Violet looked at him for a second. Schism. He must have slipped away from her parents. What bad luck that he had run right into their arms. Violet certainly had some aggression she was willing to misplace.

"Ready Dash?" She said.

"The Dash is always ready!" Dash said, as he zipped up next to his sister's starting to be quite shapely legs, though such a thing was completely lost on him, for very obvious reasons you would have to be an idiot not to realize.

"Then how come you wet your bed until you were seven?"

"HEY! No bringing up the potty training!" Dash griped, as the shimmering purple shield sprang up around him and his sister, her hands and feet locked into it, as Dash ran against the side and propelled the ball off the roof, with just enough impact so it crashed into the street and not all the way into the side of the opposite building. Schism stopped as Violet dispersed the shield and she and Dash struck combat poses.

"Oh joy. Now the lineage is going to hound me."

"You forget too quickly what happened last time if you think all we can do is dog you, Schism! Let the Dash give you a refresher course!" Dash quipped (not too well, but not every line could be a gem), and kicked in his speed, zipping past Schism before he could blink. Schism looked annoyed and turned around…just as Dash ran past him again and then ran past him AGAIN before Schism could even start turning around once more. As a result he wound up turning his back to Dash, and that was all Dash needed. Schism felt a quick jerk on his waist, and looked down to see that his belt, the one containing the proceeds from his robbery, was gone. It was now in Dash's hand, as he stopped thirty feet away from Schism and triumphantly held up his prize.

"You know what they say! A fool and his money are soon parted!" Dash taunted.

Schism chuckled.

"Yes, how pertinent." Schism replied, and waved a hand. Dash suddenly felt his arm go wonky, like he was getting goosebumps and the prickly feeling of a limb waking up at the same time, and he jerked his head up to see that somehow a warp had opened up and was now encasing his arm. The arm that was now sticking out of another hole in front of Schism, as the larger man snatched out his hand and yanked the belt free from Dash's weaker fingers before Dash could pull his arm free from the warp. Stunned, Dash performed that action, albeit half a second too late, staggering back as he looked at the closing tear. He didn't know what had happened: Schism could open warps but Dash hadn't stuck his hand through any…and then Dash finally noticed that Schism was dressing heavier then he normally did.

"Like my new powers? Now I can move warps when I open them. Like, say, over arms that are stuck in the air." Schism said, as he returned his money belt to his waist and cinched it up. Dash growled. He didn't like being shown up.

"Ok then Schism. Time to meet the new beating, same as the old beating!" Dash snapped, and flew at Schism again.

"I think not." Schism replied, as he snapped his fingers.

One of Dash's flaws that despite his speed, he tended to go in a straight line (after all, that was the quickest way between two objects, right?). And that was all Schism needed, as a small warp opened up on the concrete between Dash and Schism before the teen could cross the distance again. And due to Dash's aforementioned still present small size and short legs, he didn't have a very long stride.

So he stepped on the warp.

And as a result, tripped.

While going at roughly forty miles an hour.

"WAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Dash screamed as he flew through the air towards Schism, out of control. With a quick wave of his arm, Schism opened up another warp in front of him, and Dash flew into it.

"Dash!" Violet said: she had been standing there, not able to form plans as quickly as her brother, and as a result she'd been unprepared for Dash's tripping, and before she could carry out her intent to grab the flying Dash with a shield (which three years of training had allowed her to form at a distance), he was gone into the void.

Schism gestured behind himself, and Dash popped out of another warp. His suit was designed to protect against injury, but that didn't help much as Dash hit the street, skipped across the ground a few times and then slid to a stop several dozen feet away.

"Owwwww…my knee…" He groaned, as he rolled over and looked at his severely scraped kneecap.

"Be thankful that's all kid. I could have warped you in front of a wall, and you could have settled once and for all the debate between the irresistible force and the unmovable object." Schism said. The speed kid was down for now: he might have suffered more serious leg injuries then a scraped knee and be down for good. So Schism turned to his last target.

He wasn't surprised to find she wasn't there.

"Ah, still as tricky as ever young lady…" Schism said, his eyes slowly sliding back and forth. "But you know the expression, children shouldn't be heard, they should be SEEN!" Schism yelled, as he suddenly spun and kicked out. His foot connected with something solid, which was very surprising considering there should have been nothing there but air. Air that made a yelp, and then Violet reappeared, staggering back from the impact and clutching her shoulder. Schism smiled slightly.

"Like my new suit? Enhances my abilities sevenfold. Not to mention it includes a handy radar system." Schism said. Which was how he had known Elastigirl was going to punch him, if any of you were still wondering. Violet's eyes narrowed behind her mask. "Don't look so upset. You mess with the tiger, you get bit."

"Bite ME!" Violet yelled in a very unVioletlike way, but as mentioned, she was a tad bit upset about a few things, not to mention her hurting shoulder, as she formed a shield around her and prepared to charge into Schism.

A warp appeared near Schism, and he shoved his hand into it.

"Not my thing." He replied. Violet realized what he was doing and tried to react, but she couldn't know every possible move he could make, and hence was caught unaware when the warp opened up within her shield, behind her, and his arm reached out, grabbing her by the hair and yanking her backwards onto her rear, the sudden pain in her scalp breaking her concentration and causing her to lose her shield. She could take hellacious impacts ON the shield and not have it break her focus, but actual attacks on her needed considerably less force to interrupt her shield. Schism withdrew his hand, shaking off several strands of dark hair that clung to his fingers.

"Your brother speaks the truth of the past. In our last encounter, you two bested me. Though you stopped from humiliating me, and for that I am grateful." Schism said, and then his eyes darkened. "But my previous endeavor was still foiled by you too. I think, my dear, it is time for a little quid pro quo."

* * *

Elastigirl grunted/groaned through her teeth as she felt the building shift a little above her and add just an extra touch of weight. And considering that all in all she was just window dressing and her husband was carrying the true brunt of the burden, that probably didn't mean anything good or anything pleasant for him. 

"Ugh. How do you Omega Classes in Strength hold these loads?" She growled.

"With great difficulty." Bob replied, his own teeth clenched.

"Really? You never gave any kind of impression that it was difficult for you!" Helen said. Her voice was not angry or spiteful, but rather possessing the tone of a female who was about to have a mild argument with her long time mate.

"Well then you…probably didn't understand the situation!" Bob shot back. Helen glared at Bob, and to an outsider, it might have seemed that the relationship these two had shared for so long was on rocky ground. But a properly enlightened individual would have seen through the prickly outside of the words Bob and Helen were exchanging to the true core of them. These two had been through far worse, and they knew it, and while their words might have had barbs, their nucleus was pure love, a love that would see them through any crisis. Love, after all, as a certain song went, could move mountains.

However, in this case, it couldn't move a wobbly building off their backs. But where love fails, that's where other things come through.

Bob was trying to blink sweat out of his eyes when he heard the voice, a faint sound that might have been 'Whoa!'. It sounded familiar, and as Bob opened his eyes, a new sound came to him: a constant scraping noise. To him, that meant only one thing.

"Man!" Came the voice again, and then Frozone dropped down to the street, his rapid placement of ice footing that he skated on bringing him around a building and down on the parallel of Bob and Helen, where he leapt off and landed lightly on the ground. "What on earth are you two doing, protesting gentrification?"

"Lucius, is that you?" Bob yelled, trying to look over his shoulder, a task that was harder then it sounded, due to the fact that he has his arms raised above him, not to mention he had very wide shoulders.

"No, it's Jules Winnfield!" The blue and white clad black Super shot back. "What happened?"

"Lucius!" Helen said, as she stuck her head around her husband's large frame. "What are you doing here? You're supposed to be watching Jack-Jack!"

"Hey, you sent the general emergency signal! I figured you'd need me! Don't worry, Honey's watching him."

"What? That woman's disliked us ever since we dragged you back into superheroing…" Helen muttered under her breath. She did not dislike Honey Best, but there were certain qualities about the woman that were definitely dislikable (Lucius had told them, as a joke, how Honey almost didn't let Lucius out to fight the Omnidroid, but Helen had seen the supposed joke as a story of incredible self-importance and lack of common sense that a formal dinner was more important to that woman then a giant robot tearing apart the city), not to mention Jack-Jack, while more disciplined then he'd been as a baby, could still be quite a handful. But she'd mis-hit the button on her waist, she had to live with it. "Lucius, Violet and Dash are alone! Can you brace up this building with ice so we can go after them?"

"Brace? Well sure Helen…but…Bob, how much does the building weigh?"

"I don't know, let me just sally off and get my official Collasping Building Weight Test. A LOT LUCIUS!" Bob yelled in irritation.

"I can form a brace, but it'll need to be thick to hold up a building. Forming that kind of glacial density can be draining, I better get some water…"

"You need water?" Helen snapped, and then stood on one leg at the other elongated outward. Lucius' eyes followed it to a nearby fire hydrant, which Helen wrapped her ankle around and then spun open, causing a gush of water to explode out onto the street. "THERE! YOU'RE ALL WET!"

Lucius chuckled to himself.

"Quite a woman you got there Bob…" Lucius said, for perhaps the five-thousandth time in his life, as he hopped over so he was near the water jet. He cracked his knuckles. "Ok Drake…let me show you how it's done!"

And Frozone thrust out his hands and his freezing power shot from his palms, as Lucius aimed past the Parrs and began icing up the far wall.

Helen began to shiver a bit, and then noticed that Bob was looking at her…strangely. A quick glance downward made her realize just what he was looking at and how it related to the cold. Bob smiled mischievously, with just a hint of gentle lechery.

"Can't slap me with your hands occupied." He teased.

Helen brought her leg up and stopped it so it was just touching a very sensitive part of Bob, instead of outright kicking it. Bob suddenly didn't look so amused. Now Helen gave him a look, a look that said 'You may be naughty, but I'm outright bad.'

"What are you two doing, dancing?" Lucius commented as he continued to form ice under the broken part of the building. His power was starting to sap, and he took one hand away from the blast so he could form an ice cup and dip it down in the spraying fire hydrant, drinking the liquid quickly and returning his attention to the blast. The Parrs were now surrounded by ice.

"Ok guys, start moving out!" Lucius said. Helen pulled herself free immediately, while Bob began to shuffle back. Helen went over to Lucius and took the ice cup, filling it with water and putting it to Lucius's mouth so he could drink without lessening the intensity of his freeze blast. Within ten seconds Bob had reached the very edge of the building, and with a quick leap backwards he removed himself from the job of holding it up, as Lucius finished forming the ice block.

"Whew. Ok, I'm just going to rest for a bit, and then add some extra density, make sure it's real strong." Lucius said, as he knelt down a bit and took deep breaths.

"Go get the police after, see if you can get them to set something up more permanent then an ice cube! We're going after Schism!" Helen called over her shoulder as she and Bob took off after the villain.

"Oh what am I, the hired help? Geez…" Lucius said, and then paused for more air and another drink of water.

* * *

Helen may have been worried about her children, for good reason…but they were holding their own. Or at least surviving. 

That fact didn't seem to bring any comfort to Violet, as she jerked her arm to the side and a ball of purple energy flew through the air in the distance, yanked through the air in a straight line as Violet attempted to ram it into Schism. As mentioned, Violet had learned to form and control the shields at a distance by now, and since she didn't want to go toe to toe with Schism and whatever fancy combat martial arts he could have been taught, she figured she'd try and hit him from afar.

Not that she was having any luck with that either, as Schism kept jumping and ducking through his portals, avoiding everything she did. Violet had two shields in play by now, bouncing them off the buildings of the street to try and get Schism, but even that wasn't enough. As a bead of sweat ran down her brow, she concentrated and a new shield orb appeared before her, and as Schism popped out of another portal she let it fly towards him…

And watched it vanish as he opened up a portal in front of him. Violet growled and tried to catch him off guard with the other two shields, but Schism twirled on his feet, almost like a ballet dancer (albeit not in a way so that the motion looked disturbing), and Violet's two other shields disappeared into portals as well. Violet gasped and her arms fell. This was tiring.

"Having fun?" Schism asked. "You want to stand aside and let me leave now, or do I have to resort to fisticuffs? I never was one for violence against women…"

Violet yelled and threw another shield orb at Schism, this one bigger then her.

Schism backflipped into another tear, disappearing as the orb flew past where he had been. He promptly popped up out of another portal that opened in the street as Violet dispelled her shield orb attack, too tired at the moment to pull it back towards her.

"You missed." Schism said.

And then Dash rammed into him, his shoulder catching the adult in the back of his knees and sending him flying heads over heels backwards, doing a 270 spin as he landed on his face with a thud. Dash zipped next to his sister, looking satisfied.

"Too bad for you I didn't." Dash said.

"Yes…I'd say it was…" Schism groaned, as he tried to get back up, shaking his head. "I would assume your leg is feeling better…"

"Better then you look." Dash retorted.

"They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder…" Schism said, as he got to his feet. "Well then, next round, shall we?"

"Next round? Man, what's wrong with you? Don't you know how supervillains are supposed to talk?" Dash mock-complained. "You're supposed to be proclaiming your invincibility, not blithely accepting what happened and moving on! Come on man, do it! They always do! It's always "You DARE fight the Purple Pantywaist!" or "You fools, don't you realize you stand no chance against the Human Windshield Wiper!" or…"

"Please keep talking." Schism said, as he fiddled with the arm part of his power enhancer.

"Certainly! I…WHOA!" Dash said, as he suddenly realized he was being set up and, not knowing how or where the attack would come from, did a general leap to the side, looking around. He looked back at Schism…who was still fiddling with his arm. Dash glanced at Violet…and then came to the realization. When Schism had fallen, he must have damaged something. He was open to attack.

"Go for it." Violet said, as if she was reading her brother's mind.

"Meep meep." Dash said, getting the sound almost perfectly, and then he shot at Schism…

"Like father, like son." Schism said.

Dash had no idea he'd fallen for the same ploy Bob had: one second he was running at Schism, and then he went into the portal Schism had opened and then he was running at Violet, as her eyes widened.

"AH!" They both screamed, and then the siblings collided, Dash's momentum sending them tumbling down the road.

"Heh. 'Is solace anywhere more comforting then in the arms of a sister?'" Schism quoted. "You tell me."

"Owwwwwwwwwwww…" Dash groaned, rubbing his head as he and his sister tried to get up from where they had stopped.

"You ok Dash?" Violet asked, as she too tried to get up.

"I think you kneed me in the bad place."

"Oh it's not like you had anything important there anyway." Violet retorted as she stood up.

"Hey! Ow…" Dash said as his head spiked with pain again.

"Stay there for the moment. I'm going to Jack Griffin his rear end." Violet said, and then she disappeared from view.

Schism was a tad bit perturbed. He had expected the children to be down by now. Stubborn little buggers took after their parents too much. Well, if they wanted to act like adults, they deserved adult consequences. Especially since his previous trick with Dash had a thread of truth behind it: his hitting the ground had knocked his radar system off-line and hence he couldn't find Violet the same way he had before. But he had an appropriate substitute maneuver.

"Little girl, please come back." Schism said, as Dash began to get to his feet. "No? Ok, then you need the proper motivation."

And Schism waved his hand.

Dash yelped as the ground opened up beneath him and he found himself falling…then stopping, as the warp contracted around him and clenched around his waist. His breath went out of him in a gasp.

"You care about your brother?" Schism asked. "Re-appear now, and I promise I'll let him go. Don't, and you'll find out that the precocious little bastard really IS the sum of his parts."

"Ah!" Dash freaked, as he realized that Schism would cut him in half if Violet didn't reappear. But he was stuck fast, and no amount of struggling was going to get him free.

"I am a man of my word young lady. For better or for worse. And this offer expires…"

Violet reappeared before Schism, quite close to him. Her eyes were hard.

"Good girl." Schism said. With a yelp, Dash found himself falling again, onto the very ground he had just tried to get off of, as Schism dumped him out of another portal. Schism didn't notice: he was busy looking at Violet, and part of him noted she was really becoming quite striking. Too bad they were enemies, he might have considered making a pass at her otherwise.

"Jack Griffin. The original Invisible Man. Not bad. Got any more?" Schism asked, as he prepared for a feint strike that would knock the girl out and finally let him get away.

"Yeah. The hand is quicker then the eye." Violet said, and then to Schism's shock she fell to her knees.

And then Schism realized why Violet was so close to him: to take up a good chunk of his field of vision. A field that was now filling with an outstretched fist as an arm extended out towards him.

"Oh." Schism said.

The punch slammed into him and sent him flying backwards…right into a pair of large arms. Arms Schism did not want to be in, as he realized where he was.

"How're you?" Bob asked, his voice filled with toxic sarcasm, and then he began to squeeze, trying not to enjoy the feeling of Schism's equipment being crushed in his grip, and not wholly succeeded.

"AH BLAST!" Schism cursed, and then Bob found himself falling again as Schism managed to open up a portal underneath them. Helen finished withdrawing her arm from the punch as she checked on Dash (who looked ok), and then two more portals opened, one dumping Bob out and the other dumping Schism out. Schism didn't land so well this time: instead of a graceful foot touchdown he fell chest first onto the ground.

"Dammit…" Schism cursed, standing up as his equipment sparked from where it was cracked due to Bob's bearhug. Helen looked at her son, who looked back at her as if he okaying whatever she had planned. Helen took another few seconds to think it over then grabbed her son and used several large steps and swings to get on Schism's backside before he realized what had happened. With Bob and Violet in front of him, that left the villain surrounded.

"Blast. How unfortunate…" Schism said, as he looked around at his plight.

"Just give up Tremaine. We won't beat you up. Much." Bob said. The bald man looked wryly at Bob.

"No…I don't think so. I think instead, I'll see just what this suit can REALLY do!"

And Schism thrust out his arms, and even as more sparks exploded from the apparatus, another portal appeared before him. Schism growled as the portal grew bigger, and Bob was suddenly away of a slight tugging sensation. With a start, he realized it was suction.

"I'm not…wholly sure…where this will put you, but it'll be far away enough for me to take my leave!" Schism snapped. And he meant it: once he did this portal, both his suit and his body were going to be exhausted. But the Incredibles would (hopefully) be across town by then. Even the speed kid wouldn't be able to make his way back to this street before Schism could disappear.

"Come on Dash! We can take him!" Helen said, briefly forgetting her motherly fears as she slipped into her old Super professionalism on how to deal with villains, looking upon Dash as a comrade rather then her son.

"No wait Mom. He says he has a radar system. For all we know if we attack him he could turn around and bring the warp with him and we could leap right into it." Dash said, himself showing a strange professionalism rather then his usual run in and let the cards fall where they may devil may care thinking. And unfortunately not realizing that the radar system was now broken.

"Radar? No wonder he knew I was going to punch him back at the bank. Ok then…let's go back with your father, in case he needs something to hold on to." Helen said, as she picked up Dash and carefully used the buildings to once again scoot around Schism and his ever-growing warp. The suction was increasing, to the point where Bob and Violet were having some difficulty standing. Violet had tried throwing a shield orb to stop the forming of the rip, but it had just vanished into the portal. And all of Bob's offenses were close up, so at the moment he couldn't do anything.

"Ok, what do we do?" Helen asked when she was back with her family.

"Suction's not TOO strong. I say we stand here and wait till he burns out, then take him." Bob replied.

"Sounds good to me." Helen said, as she braced herself and her family via her powers, just in case the suction surged.

That didn't look to be happening: in fact the opposite seemed true, as the warp flickered a bit and the suction briefly weakened before returning to its previous level of power, which wasn't that much: small bits of debris were being sucked in but that was about it, and from the growling, semi-snarling noises Schism was making, this clearly wasn't what he was expecting or wanting. Whatever Bob had done to his suit, it kept him from fully bringing his 'final warp' to bear.

Schism wasn't quitting though, as he continued to try and power up the portal. But it wasn't happening, and Bob knew it. The suction was already starting to weaken again, as the portal began to shrink. Schism was bottoming out.

"Ok Dash, get ready." Bob said, as he gestured to his wife. She let her son go and he took a few steps forward, getting ready but not running in yet. "He'll be burning out soon. When he does, set him up, we'll knock him down."

"The Dash has got it." Dash said, as he took another step forward. Try and crush him with a portal, would he, he'd show him…

And then a loud bang suddenly sounded in Dash's ears. He jumped, wondering if he'd been shot at…

And then it all went to hell.

As Schism's portal suddenly surged back, widening back up within a second. That wasn't the bad thing.

The bad thing was the suction surged with it, and then beyond it, as if Schism had somehow turned the dial up from 2 or 3 all the way to 11, as a certain movie might say. The increase was so sudden and so great even Dash couldn't react in time: one moment his hair was lightly blowing from the suction and the next his feet were being yanked out from under him as he was pulled towards the portal.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed.

And then the hand grabbed him, accompanied by the end of the panicked scream Helen had made at the same time Dash had screamed. Dash yelled again as the portal yanked at him, trying to draw him in, desperately clinging to his mother's arm as he tried to avoid the gaping maw.

"What the hell! WHAT THE HELL!" Schism was screaming, as if even he didn't know what had happened. The white energy within the portal was changing, the peaceful power twisting into itself as it suddenly was stained red, and the suction increased even more. Violet found her own feet being yanked from the ground, and she scrambled to increase her grip on her father, as Bob realized that if he didn't do something quickly they'd all be pulled in, and he stomped his feet and dug into the pavement as Helen tried to increase her own brace and hang onto her son.

"SCHISM! STOP IT! STOP!" Bob yelled.

"I CAN'T!" Schism yelled back, though he was clearly trying. For some reason he himself was not affected by the pull of the portal, perhaps because despite the fact it had seemingly gone beyond his control, he had still created it. "What the hell is this! This…arggggghhhhhhhh!" Schism yelled, as his outfit let loose a fresh shower of sparks.

And Bob heard noises behind him, and turned to see what they were. His eyes widened.

Debris began pelting him, as everything that wasn't nailed down began to be drawn into the portal. A garbage can slammed against his back, and Violet was nearly brained by a flowerpot yanked down from a balcony. And at the end of his wife's outstretched his son was still yelling in fear, and his wife was still desperately trying to hold on.

"This isn't…my…!" Schism cursed.

Violet adjusted her position and reached out with an arm herself, trying to help her mother get her brother, maybe she could grab him with a shield and pull him in…

And then a low metallic moan sounded behind Bob, and he turned to see the car flying at him.

How he dodged it, he didn't know. But the drastic movement screwed everything up, weakening the brace he formed with his wife, and even as the car flew past him and into the now crimson-black portal, he saw the whiplash from the movement travel down Helen's arm…

"No." He whispered.

And hit Dash.

And his son lost his grip.

"AHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed, a scream echoed in Helen as she shrieked in pure horror, as she tried to extend her arm more, but she was too late as Dash tumbled into the portal and vanished within its folds.

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" Helen howled, in the way only mothers could.

And whatever had decided to inflict this fate upon her family, it wasn't done yet.

As Bob stumbled a bit more, trying to keep his balance…and Violet, her grip previously weakened by taking one arm away from it to try and form shields, slipped away as well, pulled by the unrelenting power of the tear, her eyes going wide with surprise and fear. Helen didn't even get to let out another scream as Violet flew past her arm, and even as a shield of power appeared around Violet, a last ditch hope that doing that might somehow prove effective, she disappeared in the portal after her brother.

Bob was numb with shock, unable at the moment to decide what to do…

But the same couldn't be said with Helen, as she suddenly untangled herself from her brace and flew out towards the portal, going after her children, disappearing before Bob knew what was happening. He blinked…and then the entirety of the situation hit him.

The decision was instant and the only one he could make, as he ran towards the portal and leapt into it.

* * *

"HOLY…!" Lucius cursed as he slid on an ice platform, not knowing what was going on. He'd come over the building edge, suddenly been aware of a powerful pull…and then he'd crested over the edge to see Bob running towards a portal. 

"BOB!" He yelled, but it was too late, as Mr. Incredible jumped into the portal after his family.

And then Lucius realized that whatever had happened to his best friend might soon be happening to him, as the portal began to pull him forward. Lucius said a bad word and tried to resist, but ice isn't exactly the best thing to be on when something is trying to suck you in. For a moment, Frozone wished his name was Sandpaper.

And then there was another loud bang.

And the portal disappeared, like someone had flicked a switch. One moment full bore, the next nothing.

As a surge of red energy flowed back to Schism and smashed into his body like a wrecking ball. Schism staggered back, and then wordlessly fell forward onto his face.

For a moment, silence.

Back on track, Frozone slid over to where Schism lay.

"What the hell what the hell what the hell…" He said, as he looked down at the villain, as if Schism could give him answers. It was clear that none would be coming from the possible former Delta Force member though: his eyes were wide open and completely blank. As Lucius watched, blood began leaking from Schism's nose and mouth.

Frozone was vaguely aware of sirens, that the police must have taken the silence as a cue and started moving in, and he noted that he had to get Schism medical help and…and…

What had happened?

"Bob?" Lucius said, as he looked around the street, as if saying the name would magically make the man appear.

No such luck.

That didn't stop Frozone from continuing to look around the empty, wreckage strewed streets. But he, and the fallen Schism, were the only ones there.

The Incredibles were gone.

_To Be Continued_


	3. Elseworld

Chapter 2: Elseworld

"I'm sorry Lucius. We haven't found a trace of them." Rick Dicker said.

For the most part, Lucius Best could handle frustration. He was, after all, a Super: nothing was more frustrating then having to dismantle Dr. Devastating's Urban De-Newal Ray for the eighth time after the villain hadn't gotten the hint the first seven times that building a giant gun that vaporized city blocks wasn't a good idea. And then there was his wife, who he loved, but was more then willing to admit could be a tad bit grating if not outright infuriating in her thinking process. But at least he could chalk that up to a reason (the typical 'so smart yet so stupid' mindset so many villains had, how else could you explain monologuing? And…well, that was just the way some women were). This time, there didn't appear to be a reason. As far as he could tell, the Parrs had just completely vanished into thin air, for no reason at all, and that lack of a reason and the implications that rested within it were slowly starting to bear down fully on Lucius.

"You think they might be in another city?" Lucius asked, if only to keep from admitting his dread.

"We sent agents to the surrounding cities as well as Metroville. They've checked hospitals, police stations, morgues, everywhere they might be. There's no trace Lucius. We're looking as hard as we can: Bob and his family were one of our…"

Dicker's words were cut off by a spate of rough coughing. The bad kind of coughing, Lucius recognized. The kind where you were sure the cougher was hacking up something a lot worse then phlegm. For a moment Lucius pondered asking Dicker if he was all right, and then realized that even if the agent was ill he would never admit it. Agents in Dicker's field had to be stone-faced, never betraying anything, and Dicker was the lifelong type when it came to his job. Hell, he'd been a veteran when Lucius had just begun his Supering over twenty years ago, for who knows how long. He supposed that the old man might be due to…no, he'd think of those possibilities later.

"As I was saying, we're looking. We'll find them Lucius. I just wish whatever Tremaine had done hadn't backfired the way it did. He's in a coma, and the doctors have no idea when or if he'll come out of it."

"Rick, I'm not sure if this was due to Schism. I've fought him. His warps look a certain way. The one that pulled the Incredibles in looked…well, nastier. Instead of a doorway, it looked like a mouth devouring them."

"Well Lucius, let's just hope that your colorful observation is…" Another brief bout of coughing. "Just that. I'll call you if we hear or find anything."

"All right." Lucius said, and hang up.

And turned to find Jack-Jack Parr standing in the doorway. Lucius went through a quick flurry of emotions, to shock to surprise to worry about what Jack-Jack might have heard. The child, with his curly hair (albeit red, not blonde, from his mother rather then his father) and big blue eyes, was the spitting image of his brother Dash at a younger age…and the look within them broke Lucius' heart. He could remember, barely, what it was like to be a child, to hardly understand the world, and for the world to do something that caused you distress, a distress you couldn't comprehend the meaning behind or the fact that there WAS no meaning behind it, just random factors that cursed you that time.

"Uncle Luce…" Jack-Jack said. "It night…where's Mommy and Daddy?"

You think you know hardship as a Super, battling the Naked Mole Man or the Menace Squadron, but Lucius would gladly take on both with Mediocre Man and Fire-Breathing Insurance Salesman-Man providing his backup then try and explain to this child that his parents might be gone forever, having disappeared into some unknown void, or worse, soon to be found sharing the same space as a building or a street, with results Lucius didn't want to contemplate.

So he did what many adults did and lied. Some children resented such acts later in life when they reached an age where they could properly understand such things, and it is true there are many things that parents and adults should not lie to children about, but at the same time, sometimes it is better to lie to a child and comfort their underdeveloped psyche then tell the truth and traumatize a mind that lacks the ability to understand and the capacity to endure. True, children could be amazingly resilient and adaptive, but usually it is better to leave both those adaptive factors disengaged.

So Lucius lied, as he walked over and knelt down next to the small, confused child.

"Your family…was called away on an adventure." Lucius said. "They said they'd come back as soon as possible…and they asked you to be a good boy while they were gone. Until they come back, Aunt Honey and I will look after you, ok?" Lucius said, trying to project a calmness he didn't really feel. And children can pick up on those kind of things, as Jack-Jack didn't look very comforted.

"But why…did they leave without saying goodbye?"

"Uh…it was at the last minute Jack-Jack…but it was very important. Not as important as you, but they still had to do it. It's part of their…duty. Maybe someday you'll understand." Lucius said, hating the last line as soon as it came out of his mouth. The look that came onto Jack-Jack's face, as he tried to manifest what Lucius had told him were his parents' last words to him, made him feel even worse, as Jack-Jack tried to look brave, but clearly showed that the courage was just a shell covering the scared child he really was. Lucius tried to think of something, anything, to say to Jack-Jack…

In the end he was given an out to his hardship as Honey walked into the room. She did not appear to be happy.

"Lucius, there's someone outside for you."

Lucius would have felt a surge of hope, if it weren't for his wife's distressed look.

"Who?" he asked.

"He says he's a…acquaintance of a friend…or something…" Honey said, clearly disturbed by whoever she had met. Lucius' own unrest grew.

"Jack-Jack, Aunt Honey's going to put you to bed, ok?"

"Will I see Mommy and Daddy soon?" Jack-Jack asked.

"I'm sure you will." Lucius found himself saying, and once again regretted it, but he could think of no other words as he passed Jack-Jack onto his wife and went to meet whoever was at the door, ready with an ice blast in case it was some kind of subtle attack.

It was not needed: there was no one at the door. Instead, a figure was standing on the sidewalk in front of his house (the Bests having moved out of the city and into the suburbs about a year ago, ostensibly for the cleaner air but in reality because with the return of the Supers attacks on buildings had octupled and Honey didn't feel safe any more), leaning against a black car with tinted windows, the classic cliché that covered government cars. The figure was wearing the classic cliché as well, dressed in a dark suit with a long black trenchcoat. He was smoking, and for a moment Lucius had the crazy idea that William B. Davis had come to visit.

That notion quickly faded as he left his house and walked over to the man. He was far too young to be Mr. Davis: he was thirty at the oldest. He had long blonde hair tightly tied into a ponytail and a thin, slightly toned body. He was neither handsome or ugly, just average.

"Mr. Best." The man said.

"And you are…?" Lucius asked, his wariness not fading. He had gathered that the man was probably one of the agents Dicker had spoken of, but he also knew that agents acting like this were rarely if ever the bearer of good news.

"Haze. Special Agent Aaron Haze." Haze said, and blew a cloud of smoke into the air.

"Oh. Hi." Lucius said. "Look, I already spoke with Dicker, and I doubt…"

"Hold that thought." Haze said, taking another drag on his cigarette. "Agent Dicker's information was…only partially complete."

"What? You found them? Are they alive?" Lucius said.

"No, we have not found them…but this concerns them, and I must speak to you about it."

"About what?"

"Their child."

"Jack-Jack? What about Jack-Jack?"

Haze didn't reply: he just blew out his smoke. Lucius was beginning to get immensely irritated: he'd experienced a few cases of small men and petty bureaucrats, envious of the special powers Supers possessed, doing their best to try and establish a sense of superiority over them, and he'd heard of even more. And it looked like Haze was doing just that: never mind you could ice me over and shatter me within two seconds, I am the master here.

"We are operating under the assumption the Parrs will be found, and soon. Their…line of work has produced these strange situations before. However, their particular situation has caused some concern in our department, and we feel it is best that we give you advance warning about their sole remaining child."

"What?" Lucius said, suddenly getting a feeling there was a lot more to this then he was being told and all of it was nasty. "Are you talking about taking Jack-Jack from me? You can't do that. Honey and I are his legal guardians, it's in Bob's will, he knew this was a possibility…"

"No…we don't want to take the child Mr. Best." Haze said. "At least not permanently."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"I am not yet authorized to give that information to you…but I am certain that your friend has the papers somewhere in his house. We did replace them after his dwelling's destruction three years ago."

"What?…Whatever you're talking about, you must be joking! Dicker would have…"

"Agent Dicker is, how shall we say, starting to be phased out." Haze said. "He's overdue actually. Once he has retired, you will report to me."

"The hell I will! I don't have to do a damn thing just because of some so called file…"

"That file exists, Mr. Best. And it is signed by your friend and his wife. Granted, perhaps they were not wholly sure what they were signing…but it is not my fault the chaos caused by the destruction of their house and the need to redo all their paperwork with us caused them to neglect things…"

Haze's cigarette was suddenly sporting an ice tip. He removed it from his mouth and looked irritated.

"I don't have time for need to know basis's I don't need to know. Tell me what you're talking about, or I'll let you experience what it's like to be a Popsicle."

Haze flicked the cigarette away, his irritation quickly moving back into his aura of calm control.

"You must understand, Mr. Best, we have already allowed your friend certain liberties. Supers were originally not allowed to marry, as you recall. And you know why."

"Because it tended to produce children who manifested powers almost immediately instead of in their teens and early adulthood, like other, earlier natural Supers." Lucius rattled off. It had been one of the rules the Supers had fought most bitterly against and finally managed to get absolved under the order that it violated their rights.

"Exactly. But Mr. Best, the concern of this Supers at birth, and the problems it could present, did not fade, not in the slightest. You married a normal woman and hence were excluded from such things, but your friends the Parrs had to make…another agreement."

"What kind of agreement?"

"Are you aware of what that child has been classified as, Mr. Best?"

"It's been a long time since I even looked at classification ratings. They always struck me as Nazi-esque, and the National Socialists never had much of a liking towards brothers, so you can see why such a parallel would bother me." Lucius replied. Though he remembered them: the ratings were applied to several individual characteristics of Supers and then combined to give an overall rating. Lucius had been a Beta, barely, just above a Gamma level, Helen had been a higher Beta, and Bob with his strength and endurance had been an Alpha. He didn't know if or what the ratings their kids had.

"He has been classified as an Omega. A very high level Omega. He will, one day, command an immense amount of power. He already does. And he is only four years old."

"So? Bob and Helen kept him under control…"

"Exactly Mr. Best. Bob and Helen. His natural parents…"

"ARE YOU INSINUATING SOMETHING?" Lucius barely managed to keep from outright yelling. He didn't want any nosy neighbors looking out at this conversation.

"No Mr. Best. I am not judging your possible parenting skills. You may be as good, better, or worse, I do not know. That does not concern me. What concerns me is that this child, this very powerful child, may have very well lost his entire family. Even with an adequate substitute, that can have all kinds of effects on a child's mind. And considering his level of power…well Mr. Best, we were hesitant to allow it even WITH the environment the Parrs provided. With that gone…you can see why we originally did not want Supers to have children. We feared these possibilities."

"Nothing will happen. Jack-Jack loves me. I might not be his dad, but if Bob never comes back I'll put every fiber of my being into being that."

"I am afraid that is not enough Mr. Best. Not with his level of power. We do not want to have to take action…but if his parents do not return soon, we are not going to sit on our hands. We cannot take that risk."

"A risk of WHAT?"

"Do you remember Gigavolt, Mr.Best?"

"I…" Lucius said, and suddenly the implications became clear. Gigavolt had been a British superhero, an Omega level as well who commanded electricity. He had served his country well…until his wife, who he loved very much, left him due to the fact that his powers, having grown as he grew older, had finally kept them from having relations, as Gigavolt's power had gotten to the point where his touch emitted a great deal of electricity, hence to do so would result in her death. Gigavolt had gotten drunk out of his mind as a result of the leaving and had lost control of his powers, shorting out nearly the entire country's electrical grid and causing untold billions in damages and losses, not to mention deaths due to the lack of electricity. And as punishment…

"No! You will not do anything like that! Gigavolt was a man, he made his choice! Jack-Jack's just a child!"

"A child who does not understand, who can be prone to emotion, who does not grasp some things like death and consequences…and a child that is fully within our right to protect, as it were. The papers were signed by his parents."

"You tricked them! They would never sign anything like that if they knew what they were!"

"But they didn't, and they did. And that is the end of the matter Mr. Best, provided they do not return. If they do, this situation is rendered moot. If not…well, you have been warned. Perhaps you may want to steel the child as well."

"I won't stand for this." Lucius growled.

"Your concerns are noted but irrelevant. My organization does not serve you, it serves this country. Countries are not individuals Mr. Best, they are abstracts, and hence a country cannot have morals like an individual. A country can only have interests. And considering this child's age, potential, and the great deal of problems that could result, I am afraid it must be done. For the greater good."

Haze withdrew another cigarette as Lucius stood there, not exactly sputtering but unable to think of anything to say in his outrage. He lit it, and then blew out a puff of smoke, right into Lucius' face.

"If you still have concerns, you can contact the bureau, but it will do you little good Mr. Best. It is set in stone. If you attempt to resist…well, we do not like making life difficult for our citizens. But, if it becomes necessary, we are very, VERY adapt at it."

And with that Agent Haze turned and tapped on the door. It opened, and Haze began getting into the car.

"Considering your great aggravation Mr. Best, it would please me if a second meeting does not become necessary. But do not expect any change if it does. Good night." Haze said, and closed the door.

It took a considerable amount of control for Lucius to not ice the car over as it drove away, bearing its smug, contemptible cargo that tried to cloak itself in the guise for an agent of decency and righteousness. Lucius had always thought, and hoped, that agents like Aaron Haze only belonged in books and movies. It looked like he was wrong though.

Honey didn't look much better when Lucius got back in the house, though a tint of her own particular brand of unhappiness was starting to creep in now that seeming 'normalcy' had returned to her house.

"Who was that?"

"Nothing you need to know Honey…"

"What? He blew smoke in my face! I think…"

"He's part of the life." Lucius said, the life meaning being a Super. The shade of disquiet on Honey's face deepened.

"How long is he going to be staying?" Honey said, changing the subject to something she'd prefer to talk about. Honey had never much liked the whole concept of Supering, but she put up with it fairly well. Until the Incredibles and Syndrome had led to the resurgence, a resurgence Lucius had been a part of, at which point her tolerance had begun to fray, to the point where it was probably only a few steps away from contempt. Sometimes, Lucius wondered if it could damage their marriage, but at the same time, he couldn't overcome the sense of obligation. He had powers, and his upbringing had taught him that he should use them for others. The bad way villains defied such a choice only increased his resolve. And Honey just had to live with that, and since she felt she couldn't really put her unhappiness on Lucius, she projected it onto the Parrs. And Lucius noticed: he didn't much care that Honey was referring to Jack-Jack as 'he'.

"Until his parents come back."

"And if they don't?"

"Then we'll raise him. That's what Bob wrote in his will, you know that."

"That was back when the worst problem was not finding a child or not being able to catch him, not…what that child can do!"

"Honey, you're speaking like he's a monster."

"He can turn into a monster! I've seen it!"

"And Helen and Bob have taught him that it isn't appropriate outside of certain situations. I'll continue those teachings if I have to, train him to properly use his powers."

"What if he won't listen? You're not his father…!" Honey said, with a nasty undertone on one of the Best's sore spots: they had yet to have any children of their own. There were no problems with Lucius or Honey, it was just fate.

"Honey, STOP IT. We won't…"

And then Lucius was aware his leg was buzzing. Not his leg, the cell phone in his pocket. The thing was, Lucius had it set to ring, not vibrate, and he knew that he hadn't changed that setting and forgotten, at least not today. That left one option, and Lucius suddenly needed an excuse to stop the argument and be alone.

"Honey, I need to check some stuff on the Parrs tomorrow. I can tell you more details then. Please, can we not argue about this? He's just a little boy, he needs support, not fear and accusation." Lucius said, and not able to think of any other way, he turned and left the room. He really hoped Honey didn't follow him.

She didn't: instead she stood there, in the room. She had enough intelligence and compassion to understand the essential truth in Lucius' words, but she was only human, and nothing could change the fact that Jack-Jack was not only not her son, but the son of the family that had dragged Lucius back into the dangerous world Supers inhabited. Nor could anything change the fact that part of her resented Jack-Jack, despite it being beyond his control.

Such darkness within humans is an inevitable and tragic thing…

Lucius made his way into his office slash personal room, closed the door, and locked it. He went over to his desk and pulled out his cell phone, but instead of answering it he opened a desk drawer and withdrew a strange device with a small clear screen above it and a lone wire coming from its base. Lucius took the wire and slid the small port at the end of it into his cell phone, and then waited for the special connection to be finalized. If his cell phone was buzzing when it should be ringing, that meant someone was beaming a special signal towards it, and Lucius knew only one person who did that.

She appeared on the screen a few seconds later.

"Lucius. Good. I was worried you weren't going to answer." Mirage said.

"I hope you have some answers for me, Mirage." Lucius said, his voice even, with a touch of terseness. After Syndrome's defeat, Mirage had gone on the run to escape the charges that had been laid against her for being his accomplice. Eventually, she had decided to atone for her part in Syndrome's mass murder of Supers and had set herself up in an unknown location as a collector and giver of information, personally and privately contacting the Supers she knew and met and providing them with anything that they might find useful or important. Bob and Lucius had refused to have anything to do with her at first, but after the information she was giving other Supers started to actually pan out, not to mention Mirage warning Bob that another old enemy was going to try for one last shot at glory by taking him out, they had gradually conceded a bit and began accepting her information when she contacted them via her network of satellites (none of which she had launched herself, but one didn't need that when you were a computer expert par excellance). True, it didn't exactly wipe her slate clean, hence the curtness, but Lucius wasn't a black and white thinker. He had actually had a long argument with Mirage one time on how she should face up for her crimes if she really wanted to atone, and Mirage had pointed out that prison would do her little good and might even poison her considering how terrible most of then were (she'd seen _Oz_), and that overall morals aside she probably did the world better doing what she did, information brokering (Mirage gave info to Supers for free, but sold other kinds of info, though it was legal, to fund her operation. After all, you couldn't run a worldwide information matrix on pennies), then languishing in a cell. Lucius hadn't exactly conceded, but he and Bob still accepted her special calls and took what she said into account.

"Believe me Lucius, if I knew where Bob was I'd have told the searchers by now. Even if he was…" Mirage said, and let the sentence drop off.

"I figured. I have other questions though." Lucius said. He figured he'd check to see if he could find the so called documents the esteemed Agent Haze had spoken of before he asked Mirage for help on that issue. "Mirage…this whole thing is bizarre. Schism's warp powers should not have produced this effect. I have to wonder if there are outside forces at work here. And I have to ask…"

"Do you think its Syndrome?" Mirage finished.

"I know. He's dead." Lucius said, taking Mirage's words out of her mouth in turn. "That hasn't stopped villains before."

"Lucius, Syndrome was…"

"Chopped up and then blown to bits, could bury him in a matchbox, yes, I know…but could that have been faked?"

Mirage was silent for a bit.

"There was a lot I didn't know about Buddy." She said, an ever so slight tone of mourning creeping into her voice. Lucius allowed her it: even if Buddy was a murdering lunatic, something about him had charmed Mirage, and even if it had been false and part of his grand scheme, the memories weren't any less real. Mirage fully acknowledged that Buddy had been, overall, a monster, but she still could recall a time or two when he had been a man, and shown her things that she had respected and admired. "You know how smart he was Lucius, but what you don't know is how driven he was. It all tied into his desire for revenge, but it could manifest in different ways. He was always thinking of SOMETHING, all the time, trying it, making prototypes, fusions, all kinds of gear. He never felt the need to tell me or anyone about it: they were his creations, and if he didn't need slave labor or more organizing capacity no one else needed to know about them. When the government took apart Normison, they found all kinds of half-finished machines, blueprints, scribbled notes, a myriad of things he had never mentioned…including things that seemed like the rantings of madmen rather then scientific and technological hypotheses. But Buddy was so brilliant…I have to wonder if he made them anyway. He sometimes liked to carry prototypes on him to test them in the field. He might have been doing that even in his final hours." Mirage said.

"So you're saying he might have survived?"

"No."

"Then why did you just make that long speech about prototype tech and…"

"Lucius, if Buddy had survived, you would have heard from him by now. One of the main reasons that there were so many unfinished machines was because Buddy was so impatient. True, some of the machines he couldn't properly build with what he had, but a lot were just abandoned because he got other ideas. When it came right down to it, Buddy only waited so long to attack Bob because he believed at the time from his childhood that Supers were all virtually invincible. After all the Omnibot tests though…he knew that wasn't the case. He only showed patience for his original scheme. If he survived, he could have never waited this long to strike again. He would have surely done it already, in some way. So no, Lucius, I don't think Syndrome is behind this. Buddy's dead."

"And that leaves us back where we started. If this wasn't Syndrome, who was it?"

"What about new enemies?"

"We looked through that already. None of them have the experience or the mindset to do what happened." Lucius said. He felt just like how Mirage looked: distressed.

"Then…even I don't know where he could have gone." Mirage said. "And considering my ability to track, with all the resources I can tap…Lucius, where could Bob and his family possibly be?"

* * *

Somewhere else, far away. Very very far away. An entire creation away, you might say. 

The sun was rising over the city, a city of tall skyscrapers. It was much like Metroville, except it seemed to lack a certain color. The tones here were more muted, almost faded a tad, far more grays then rainbows. Despite the subdued tints, the city still looked marvelous, with trash-free streets, clean buildings, nice cars…

And an explicably large open area in the middle of the city. It was like someone had reached down and yanked all the buildings out by hand and then perfectly pressed the empty space flat. It was enormous, arena sized, starting randomly at one street and going for half a mile before it stopped at City Hall.

And it was filled to capacity with robots.

They stood there, a massive army of them, thousands, filling ¾ of the inexplicable large space. They were humanoid, dressed entirely in black, with metallic armor on their legs, arms, and shoulders. Their faces appear to be masked, showing only their eyes, an orange dot in the middle of the masks the only different color on their costumes. They stood slightly hunched over, like they had trouble bearing the weight of their arms, and their eyes all stared forward, in perfect lockstep as it could be said. No human group could be so precisely coordinated, and that was accurate: these were not humans, but robots.

And their master stood behind his legions. His outfit was similar to the robots, all black with metal armor placed on certain points, but he was larger then them, and he stood bolt upright, his hands behind his back. His mask also differed from the multitudes: it was part black and part orange, split perfectly down the middle. From the orange part peered a lone eye, a dark pupil that seemed to make up for its lack of a brother by looking upon everything as if it understood any and all great truths behind them. It's gaze, as well as the gaze of the many robots, all stared across the open ground in the large space to the figure at the other end of it.

A lone figure.

He stood there, staring at the ground, as if the street was more interesting then the army in front of him. His clothes were all white: white boots, white jeans, a white shirt, and white gloves: the only variety was the light blue jacket that the figure wore. The jacket was rippled in the style heavy motorcycle jackets are, with T's emblazed on the shoulders and a fancy, jagged S engraved on the back. The figure's face was partly hidden by his downward gaze and also by the mass of spiky white hair on top of his head, hair that stood in an impossible away, at least by normal terms. In the world of anime however, such a style, so towering and spiked, is all too plausible.

The young man looked up, his extremely bright pupils a stark contrast to the other man's dark eye. And while the masked man's face betrayed no emotion, the emotion was all too clear on this teen's face.

Contemptuous disregard.

"Heh." The teen snorted, one corner of his mouth briefly twisting into a smirk.

And then he charged.

Slade said nothing, instead pointing with one arm, and his robot soldiers responded immediately, as they too broke into a charge. The fact that he was outnumbered several thousand to one didn't seem to be of much concern to the white-haired teen, as he did not slow his pace any, even as he thrust one of his arms out before him at a forty five degree angle, aiming it at the ground.

And something exploded from his palm, even as he and the far greater numbers drew close, the front lines of the robots pulling out laser weapons that look rather like nail guns. What came from the teen's hand looked like a rope, a rope composed of white energy…a rope that seemed alive, twisting and coiling, as it emerged from his palm, even as the distance between the mass and the individual shrank to several feet.

The front lines began attacking. Some fired blasts of energy, others slashing out their devices and sent lines of cutting power running across the ground…as the figure paused briefly in his step, bending his leg a bit more then the average stride a runner has…and then springing off the ground like a grasshopper as the white energy rope appeared from his foot as well, curling beneath him and throwing him into the air via a spring, the shots and slashes flying beneath him as the boy leapt over the mass.

The robots start aiming up.

And then the boy spun, having turned himself horizontally, as the two strands of white energy suddenly became many, lancing from his arms as the teen rapidly rotated, turning his body into a whirling dervish. The lines extended far enough so that they reached the street, and since said street was now covered with robots, the lines struck them, ripping through the machines like they were made of wet paper, the spinning teen carving a wide gash before he ceased his spin, just before he hit the ground. He flipped over so his feet were once again level with the street, and the lines, within an eyeblink, were pulled back into his body and then unleashed again as the boy thrust out his arms. Twin strands of the power flew from his palms, moving at insane speed, as they shot down towards the robot army, and then, a moment before they hit the ground, changed direction so they also ran parallel to the street, the lines forming the shape of two massive hockey sticks.

Then the lines shoved outward, and the robots found themselves being pushed and tossed away, if not outright cut in half, as the teen cleared a space for himself a second before he landed there.

He did not have breathing room long.

For he was right in the middle of the robots, and they proceeded to swarm him…but the teen was not standing still, as he charged forward along the ground, the lines shooting from his hands, his arms, his shoulders, and even his back and waist on occasion, as they smashed robots, knocked their heads off, pierced through them, grabbed them and tossed them into their companions, and otherwise destroyed them, the white energy acting more like a living thing then an engaged weapon. The robots tried to attack the figure with their own weapons and their hands and feet, but every shot and blow was either dodged or blocked, and the end result was more destruction for the robots.

The crowd thinned a bit, as a group clustered together and tried a massed shot. But the running figure rolled in mid-sprint and the blasts flew over him, hitting more robots as the teen completed his roll and sprang out via his hands and his power, flying forward through the air, feet first, feet that clamped onto the neck of one robot and then used the continued momentum to spin the robot around, even as the teen fired more lines out of his palms and destroyed all the robots around him before he completed the toss he had initiated with his legs and threw the robot away as he let go. He fell, and he would have landed on his back…had a white line not shot from his body, going through the jacket like it wasn't there, and stopped the fall, changing the angle and weight distribution so the teen's feet hit the ground first. Then the line shoved slightly up, correcting the teen's balance as he continued the charge towards the master of the robots.

Slade's eye narrowed as the boy continued to rip his way through the masses. Then the expression changed, as he seemed to be contemplating something.

As the young man pulled out his craziest trick yet, as he leapt over another group of robots. First he thrust a hand down, shooting an energy rope that impaled itself firmly into the ground, and then he slammed his feet together. The white energy emerged from the boots, once again seemingly phasing through the material, and the lines of power quickly formed into a smooth, semi-pyramid esque shape below his feet as the teen fell to the ground. The boy landed, balancing perfectly on the construct, still connected to the line he had just speared into the earth, and then, like a reverse yo-yo, he spun across the ground, as the line began wrapping around him like it was doing it's best impression of an anaconda. As the robots regrouped and began to fire again, the boy reached the end of the line…and then the line yanked shoved itself even further into the ground, rapidly unwinding itself. Combined the shape beneath his feet, this made the teenager spin like a top, as the line that had provided the windup ripped from the ground as a dozen additional lines sprang from his body, and he shot across the street, knocking and tearing through the robots like they were ants.

Slade's eye narrowed again, and then seemingly came to a decision, as it reached for his belt.

And somehow, the teen saw the motion, despite the fact that he was twirling around so fast he should have been violently ill, and he reacted, as he withdrew his dozen smaller lines and then fired our four long ones, shooting them into the masses, lines that then curled around and onto themselves, each one snaring a mass of robots it crushed together in its coil. The spin abruptly slowed, as the figure was now holding, in essence, four large clubs, the crushed together robots acting like bludgeons as the figure smashed them into their brothers.

And Slade withdrew something from his belt, a small switch, whose end he flipped up to reveal a button that he pressed.

All the robots surrounding the teen began to beep…

And then two more lines shot from his waist, pressed down against the ground, and then forced themselves back up, once again throwing the young white haired teen into the air, carrying his four clusters of crushed robots…clusters he hurled away, each one going into a section of the still large army.

And then all the robots exploded, as the man triggered their self-destruct mechanism in an attempt to get the teen, but with the teen up in the air, all he succeeded in doing was blowing up his own army, as the four crushed masses the teen had tossed away all detonated and caught the robots on the outskirts, one that hadn't been commanded to blow up, in the devastation of the mass self-destruct command. The explosion threw the teen even higher, fire belching up around him along with an upward rain of flying shrapnel, shrapnel the teen deflected away as he spun in mid-air.

Slade was looking around, trying to locate the white teen, when the line slammed into the ground next to him. He looked up with some alarm.

Gravity was starting to re-assert itself, but the white haired boy didn't care, as he snapped the hand not holding the energy line out, more of the power flowing out and solidifying into a blade-like shape, and then the line that he'd shot into the ground retracted into his hand, yanking the teenager towards Slade at high speed, as the teen swung the blade out.

And found it slamming into a metallic bo Slade had pulled out.

For the first time, the teen spoke, as his intense expression dissolved into a look of great confusion.

"Huh?"

Slade whirled, shoving the energy blade away even as he thrust up his leg, catching the teen square in the jaw and sending him flying backwards. He bounced down the stairs in several painful looking impacts, coming to a rest on the bottom.

"Oww…" The teen said, as best he could without moving his aching jaw, as Slade leapt up and flew down towards the teen, swinging his bo…

"STOP!" The teen managed to get out, thrusting an arm towards Slade.

And Slade stopped. In mid-air. Like he was in a movie that had just been paused. Letting out a groan, the white haired teen got up, holding his mouth.

"End program." He muttered.

"Request not understood. Please repeat." A disembodied voice said.

"END PROGRAM!" The teen yelled, and then winced and grabbed his jaw again as a fresh wave of pain flowed through it. "Goddamn it, this VR training is TOO realistic…"

The world blurred before the teen, and he had an intense sense of vertigo, as his body suddenly had no idea where it was, and then he felt it reorienting itself, as the pain faded to nothing and the sensation of sitting back in a chair came to its awareness. That and a heavy helmet covering his head.

Growling, Noel Collins sat up and yanked the VR helmet off.

"Ok, who screwed with the…" Noel snapped, before seeing who was at the computer. "Oh, why am I not surprised?"

"Because you have pattern recognition skills?" Robert Candide replied.

* * *

While the city seen beforehand was perfectly clean, that is easy to do in virtual reality. Real life, however, means a dirty city, despite any efforts to clean it. 

That included alleyways.

In which a stunned figure stood.

"I am getting an inkling…" The Jackal said. "Things did not quite go according to plan."

_To Be Continued_


	4. Trivial

Chapter 3: Tri(vi)al

* * *

Accessing Titan Tower Computer Files. Password? 

**_CloudNine._**

_Password accepted. What would you like to do?_

**_Update personal files._**

_Understood. Accessing files.

* * *

_

Titan Personal File No #12: Savior

Real Name: Noel Collins

Character Status: Original (created by author)

Story Origin: Black And White

Power: The Shimmer. Semi-sentient energy derived from a mutated nervous system. Energy can form crude shapes, tools, and is also capable of altering its own density. Can lift a maximum of 7.2 tons. Mutation origin of nervous system also allows the Shimmer to interact with other human nervous systems like a hacker jacking into a computer: Noel can read minds, take knowledge and experiences (for example speaking a language, though he can only mimic such a skill as long as he is connected with the wielder of the skill), erase memories, and activate pain impulses among other abilities. The Shimmer also regenerates nerve tissue, in both its host and others (though it is much easier to regenerate its host's). Energy is also fire, cold, and electricity proof. Weakness: blades. When the Shimmer is cut, it sends a jolt of intense agony through Noel, briefly and completely incapacitating him for a few seconds. Noel Collins also possesses a highly developed mind, which is focused mostly on strategies, tactics, and combat situations. The downside is his personal skills are rather sub-par.

History: Born to Maxwell Collins, an immensely powerful businessman with a mind of pure evil, Noel was saved from his father's plans for him by his kind mother, who taught Noel everything he knew. After she died, Noel fled his father, and ended up in New York, where an accident with twin trucks sprayed him first with paint and then with an experimental nerve toxin, the combination creating a beneficial instead of a fatal mutation, which Noel dubbed the Shimmer. The mutation also created a special "battle body" which Noel can switch to by willing it. Said body possesses his famous DBZ style hair. Noel, in regards to a supposed dream to meet Batman, whom he idolizes, went down to Florida to meet the Teen Titans, and ended up joining them.

It has not been an easy life since then. While the Titans have provided Noel with the family he always wanted, and after much effort he managed to break down the barriers between them and form a relationship with the Titan Raven, a relationship that has grown closer over time, the perils of the superhero life are many, and Noel has nearly lost his life and his sanity (indeed, there is some question if he really did lose the latter and never recovered from it). That, and the general stupidity/hypocrisy of the human race has caused Noel to grow hard and deeply cynical and bitter, tending to view the glass as not only half empty but cracked. However, after a mission where his hardline stance nearly brought him to blows with local talent, Noel is attempting to adapt a milder disposition. Whether he succeeds or not has yet to be determined. Noel is probably not the kind of person you'd want to hang out with, but he is definitely the person you'd want watching your back in a fight. While Robin sometimes think he will one day be Batman, Noel would consider his life complete if he could ever reach half the level of Batman. For better, or for worse.

Titan Personal File No #27: Gauntlet

Real Name: Robert Candide

Character Status: Original (created by Bobcat)

Story Origin: The Epic of Gauntlet (uncompleted)

Power: Namesake weapon the Gauntlet. The Gauntlet is a mystical artifact created by an ancient race known as the Old Ones. The artifact enhances Robert's natural abilities, although only to a certain degree before other powers must be deactivated to accommodate heavier users of power (for example, Gauntlet cannot lift more then four tons or jump more then 20 feet unless he deactivates other Gauntlet powers). Its main weapon is a yellow energy field similar to the Shimmer, able to form shapes, weapons, shields, or what is needed as long as it is not too complex. While it lacks the Shimmer's range, it also possesses no obvert weaknesses (the only way for the energy to be pierced is if Robert BELIEVES it can be pierced by whatever weapon is being used, otherwise it is indestructible). The Gauntlet artifact itself manifests as a ring shape when not in use and expands to cover Rob's entire right arm when in use. The actual Gauntlet armor is also virtually indestructible: only insanely powerful magic can pierce it.

History: Born in Ubertron, a city overflowing with people with powers (most of whom didn't much care for them due to the way it complicated things), Robert Candide was somewhat of an anomaly as he had no powers and dearly wanted them. His wish was granted when the ancient demi-god Pangloss the Mighty chose Robert to be the bearer of the Old One artifact the Gauntlet (actually, chose is a strong word: Pangloss picked Robert out of the phone book. The being Pangloss had power beyond comprehension, but one thing exceeded his power and that was his laziness). However, Robert, while not evil, had a somewhat ill-defined sense of morality in a classic sagacity: while he would gladly stop a bank from being robbed, he would think nothing of robbing the same bank for funds to pay for his war on crime (he considered it due payment for his civil services). His actions eventually caught up to him and he was arrested and sentenced to 2000 hours of community service, which he could either serve picking up garbage or joining a superhero team. A mail error caused the Titans to lose the chance to refuse him membership, and Robert was placed on the team to serve his sentence, a place he remained afterward because he rather liked the place.

Robert is a happy soul, the manifestation of Spider-Man's lighthearted wittiness without any of the drama and angst. He enjoys goofing off and taking nothing seriously, something that has kept him and Noel, who is his opposite to the extreme, from seeing eye to eye. When tragedy batters the team, Rob is the one ready to do something stupid to lighten the mood, and when the forth wall needs to be broken, Rob is there with the hammer. Despite this, Rob can be immensely useful in a fight and very dangerous if pushed to panic. Outside these situations, Rob is Comedy Relief in its purest state. But he's no joke.

And he has a habit of getting into trouble…

* * *

Usually in a way that caused Noel's blood pressure to shoot skyward, something he was mightily trying to resist as he finished unstrapping himself from the leanback chair he had been sitting in, his mind lost in a fake world before Rob had decided to interject some reality into it. 

"What did you do?" Noel calmly asked, trying not to get mad at the blonde haired teen, whose hair was spiky in a similar style of Noel's, though he was dressed more casually with normal jeans and a white T-shirt with the letter G on it. That was Rob: only normal in places where being normal was strange. Still, Rob probably meant no harm, he NEVER meant any harm…unless meaning harm was part of the joke. Noel felt the vein throbbing in his forehead. _Ugh. I'd rather go toe to toe with Flammadea again then deal with this, I swear…_

"Hold it Noel! I had a good reason! I know you! You're always going on with how we should train hard, well I came in and saw your little session and thought, hey something was wrong! So I went over and sure enough, you had the difficulty set to 1! I thought, man, Noel must have made a mistake! Surely he wants a challenge! So I turned it up!"

Noel winced as he walked over to see just how far Rob had turned the dial up.

The result didn't make him happy.

"TEN?" Noel thundered. "YOU TURNED IT UP TO TEN?"

"Doesn't it work on a 1-100 scale?" Rob asked.

"NO!"

"…Eheheh. Oops." Rob said, and sweatdropped. Noel tried to hold off his desire to strangle Rob.

"I had it set to one on purpose." Noel said.

"Why?"

"Because I did!"

"Really? That's not like you Noel."

Noel glowered at the teen.

"Really! You're Mr. Challenge Yourself! You don't go for ease! And I can't see why you would unless…oh…yeah. Now I remember." Rob said, as he recalled what the Titans had done last night.

"'Let's build a machine that will let us peak into parallel realities.'" Noel said, mimicking Rob's voice, though the tone was somewhat distorted: not via any mockery of the voice but by Noel's anger of whatever had happened. "'It'll be FUN! Maybe we'll learn something!' Yeah, we learned a good way to traumatize Tara: show her a reality where Slade corrupted her. She already knows how close she came to that Rob, we don't need to present it to her in bold color. It's not a good idea to tread on the deep-seated doubts that some people have Rob. Especially after that nonsense I had to go through in Light City to hook her and Gar up."

"Oh but they're such a cute couple!"

"They're so sweet I'm getting diabetes!" Noel semi-snarked.

"Right, but I doubt the Tara thing is what's bothering you."

"What are you, my shrink?"

Noel realized too late he had given Rob an opening, and he suddenly found himself lying on a yellow energy couch formed from Gauntlet's power, Gauntlet sitting on a chair of the same material with a pen and paper pad he had produced from somewhere.

"Zo, how long haff you been haffng zese feelinks?" Gauntlet said in a horrible German accent.

Noel rolled his eyes.

"I don't want to sleep with my mother! Don't even joke about it!" Noel said, getting off the couch and going back on the computer where he had been pressing buttons.

"Ah, zehr GUT! Confuzion! Reprrression! Kronick Konstipation! Tell me, haff you dreamed of any cigars lately?"

"CAN IT!"

"Ok." Rob said, back to normal. "Seriously though Noel, you were ripping through those Sladebots like you were in a Dynasty Warriors game. Or if your last name was Stu."

A nearby wall cracked.

"Starting the jokes early, are we, my esteemed creator." Noel muttered, and continued punching buttons.

"I mean, yeah, that wasn't nice, but how do we know how real it is? It might not exist at all!" Rob said.

"Yeah. So I'm just going to ignore it and forget it. Just forget seeing Raven all alone with a Trigon-empowered Slade nearly raping her. It's too bad we already killed Trigon, I wish I could kill him again. Maybe I can…" Noel said, and then his eyebrow arched.

"Rob, did you do the proper setups to change the difficulty?"

No immediate answer. Noel looked around to see a sheepish, confused Rob. That pretty much spelled it out for him right there.

"Setups?" Rob asked.

"Rob, this is an unfinished prototype! You can't just turn the dial, you need…ah bloody hell!" Noel cursed as he began rapidly typing. Various screens flashed up on the main monitor, some not looking as good as they should have. "Shit! The bugs are getting out of hand!"

"Um…"

"Just stand there!"

"Gotcha." Rob said, as Noel frantically typed at the keyboard, strands of white energy coming out of the back of his hands and typing at other keys, allowing Noel to do the work for three people. Noel frantically typed for about twenty seconds before he slacked off.

"Ok, think I stopped it. Now I just have to clean up your mess." Noel said.

"Hey, I just wanted to help…"

"Argh! Rob, from now on, do not help me unless I ask for it!"

"Gotcha. Do not help you even if you ask for it."

"No! When it comes to tasks, do not attempt to help me unless requested!"

"Until you request it, I am not to attempt tasks."

"Would you like to experience some more of Python's Holy Grail smart-aleck? How about the Black Knight?" Noel snarked, as he thrust his hand out and the Shimmer energy formed into a sword.

"Hah! None shall pass!" Rob said, as he formed his own sword.

"Ahem."

Rob and Noel were prevented from beginning their duel to the death by the speaking new arrival, a truly bizarre looking figure. The figure's fashion sense (a red suit with a matching hat and purple cloak) was almost as strange as his appearance: he had grey skin, wild light blue hair, black eyes with dark blue pupils, and very long elvin ears. His hand was unlike a human hand: it only had two large fingers and a thumb, all of which were covered with metal that seemed (and in reality was) fused to the skin. His feet matched his hands. In said hand, slung over his shoulder, was a long staff with a large blade on one end. He was grinning a bit, showing very large double-toothed fangs, which hinted that he was somewhat amused but also somewhat annoyed.

"I heard something about computer bugs before you started spouting Python at each other. I assume my session in the training room is canceled?" Nigel Hastings asked.

* * *

Titan Personal File No #66: Scalpel 

Real Name: Nigel Hastings (English abbreviation from Nigicalnack Hastionfarlock)

Character Status: Original (created by Jedi-And)

Story Origin: Flashing Lights And Sounds (uncompleted)

Power: Alien species known as the Blacktrinians: species was raised on planet with heavy gravity and society bent towards war. Hence by biology Nigel has superstrength, though this strength comes from his species' immense density, the result being that Blacktrinians are very prone to drowning and hence fear water. Though a doctor by training, Nigel was given some combat teachings, teachings that have evolved far beyond what any teacher on his planet would have expected of him through his battles on Earth. Hands and feet have metal permanently welded on them (another Blacktrinian need, as the natural limbs have no skin to cover the muscle and bone), hence giving Nigel natural claws, which he had use in combat or surgery (despite such limbs, Nigel has an immense amount of grace and can easily handle delicate things, like babies). Blacktrinian biology gives Nigel a natural resistance to bladed weapons (in a way that you can slice him to ribbons and he will survive, not in a way that blades will bounce off him, much to Nigel's eternal annoyance) and a blood that acts similar to napalm, being somewhat corrosive and highly flammable. Weakness besides drowning are bullets, which Blacktrinians, having spent eons fighting in close, are vulnerable to, to a great degree.

History: Not much is known about Nigel's past, as he has refused to speak about it, even to this day…

(Which is what the Titans knew. You, dear readers, shall know this. Nigel Hastings has led a cursed life. Considered a weakling by birth, Nigel was nonetheless fed into the eternal war machine of his species, trained as a doctor and thrust onto the battlefield, a field Nigel quickly grew to loathe. Captured by the enemy, he was tortured for information he did not have, and when he escaped and returned to his people he was tortured to see if he had revealed anything to the enemy. That was the last straw for Nigel, who fled his empire and landed on Earth, in Jump City, where the Teen Titans took him in.)

But whatever hardships Nigel has withheld from his team, said hardships were far from over. His appearance made virtually everyone think he was a monster. His empire repeatedly sent soldiers, including the elite White Hole units, in attempts to bring their errant soldier back, soldiers who caused great pain and suffering to the Titans, especially Robin and Starfire, which led to Robin nearly losing his own mind. Not to mention the kind and gentle by nature Nigel found that the human race was just as bad, and even worse, in many aspects as his own people. Nonetheless, Nigel has stuck it out, doing his best to save the world, whether it by via his combat blade skills or his great skill in earth and alien medicine. He can be a great friend, or a terrible enemy. Unfortunately, too many are certain of the latter to even attempt to see if the former is true…

* * *

"You'd assume right Nigel." Noel said, turning back to the computer screen and resuming his typing. 

"What happened?" the alien asked, pulling the bladed staff known as a glaive off his shoulders as he walked over to the computer.

"I was…utilizing the machine, and then a certain someone came in and second-guessed me and accidentally mucked up the computer by not changing the difficulty level properly. Typical of brainless here." Noel said.

"Heyyy!" Rob protested.

"Oh? Is this true Rob?" Nigel asked.

"Yes it is. This man has no brain." Noel said, and smirked over his shoulder at Rob.

"Ohhhhhh! One of these daze Alice, POW! To da moon!" Rob said.

"It's probably for the best anyway Nigel. This program has a long way to go. We've mostly laid the groundwork and just that. I had to make the machine jump through hoops to get it to do what I wanted to do, and from our planned finished product that should be simple, not complicated."

"Yeah, I have to admit, the Griffin enemy on this thing was kinda disappointing." Rob cut in. "I mean, I've fought all the big predators: Lions, hyenas, police officers, but that griffin was just PATHETIC!"

"And when did you go on the computer when I've decreed that everyone has to ask my and Cyborg's permission before you use the prototype program?" Noel asked calmly, not looking up from his work.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh…"

"Never mind." Noel said. "Shit. The Lord's program has been bugged up again." Noel added to himself, and began rapidly typing again.

"You've put the Lord on there?" Nigel asked.

"Yes, but listen closely, and I MEAN YOU ROB, REALLY…" Noel said, making sure he had the easily preoccupied Titan's attention. "The only thing set on the Lord scenario is the virtual Lord himself and the Jump City background. There's a bunch of stuff that still needs to be tightened up and refined, and until it is do NOT go on that program. In order to capture just how dangerous the Lord was we've hit a problem with the neurological hookup. The current setup allows feedback for most of the other programs so you actually feel like you're being hit, but the Lord's program has a recurring glitch where it hooks too deeply into the body: the brain can actually be tricked into thinking the actual body is being injured and will react accordingly. Until we work that out, DO NOT USE THE LORD PROGRAM."

"Not even if we set it to 1?" Rob asked, his sarcasm about 95 percent jovial and 5 percent biting.

"No, because another glitch automatically sets the difficulty level to 10 whenever the Lord is selected, no matter what the previous difficulty was. Believe me Rob, the Lord program could quite potentially be fatal. DON'T USE IT."

"All right, all right. I'm absentminded, not brain damaged."

"I wonder…" Noel said.

"Hey!"

"Ok, ok, BREAK IT UP." Nigel said. "Well if I can't use the program I may as well go back to my endless paperwork. Said paperwork being endless because no one ever helps me with it, HINT HINT." Nigel said.

"It's not my fault you have a habit of writing in Blacktrinian. You're already suffering from the doctor's curse of messy handwriting, but the compounding of it is your fault alone." Noel said.

Nigel lightly punched Noel on the shoulder. However, the Blacktrinian definition of lightly was rather different from the earth definition, the result being Noel was knocked completely over.

"Oops. Don't know my own strength." Nigel said, and grinned.

"I'll go against my better judgment and believe that this time." Noel said as he got up. Nigel tipped his ever-present hat at the white-haired teen and left.

Noel continued to work at the monitor for several seconds before he realized Rob was still standing next to him.

"Yes?"

"Watcha doin' Mr. Man?" Rob said in his best Dot from Animaniacs impression. Noel groaned inwardly. _He's bored._

"You know Rob, I think there's a Monty Python marathon on today." Noel said, cutting off the 'Why?' shtick before it started.

"There is? I don't recall seeing it in the TV Guide."

"Uh, they added some new channels. Check in the low 2000's." Noel said.

"Really? WOW!" Rob said, and ran full-tilt out of the room.

Noel went back to work…for a few seconds, before a cloud of metaphorical smoke poofed on his right shoulder.

"You know, you should really lay off lying to him like that." Noel's Superego said, dressed in the classic beatific garb of a shoulder angel. "One of these days, he's just going to start ignoring you, even if it's important."

"All right Shoulder Angel, we've heard from you. Shoulder Devil, your rebuttal?" Noel said to himself.

Poof.

"Get drunk and screw Raven." Noel's Id said. "No wait, screw as many chicks as you can get. And when you get drunk, make sure you take Viagra with it or you won't be able to get it up."

"Right. Survey says…I don't like either answer. Especially yours." Noel said, as he curled up his index and middle finger and flicked his Shoulder Devil off his shoulder, the creature flying away with a yell before vanishing. Shoulder Angel looked cross, and then vanished in turn.

Whether that actually happened in a real sense, I'll leave it up to you to decide.

Noel continued to work for several minutes before a beeping came to his attention. He checked it. Incoming feed. Someone was trying to contact him, and he was pretty sure he knew who. But just to be safe, he spent thirty seconds running the attempted feed through security and another forty encrypting it before he opened up his other end of the connection.

Robin's masked face filled the screen, though not so much that Starfire, Raven, and part of the room in the Titans East tower couldn't be seen behind him.

"Good day fearless leader." Noel said.

* * *

Titan Personal File No #1: Robin 

Real Name: Timothy Drake

Character Status: Canon (created by DC)

First Comic Appearance: Batman #436 (as Tim Drake), Batman #457 (as Robin)

Power: As a human, Tim Drake possesses no abilities beyond the ones granted by constant, exceptional training. Said training comes from Batman, both in martial arts and detective skills. Also highly skilled in computers and other electronic devices. Robin's costume is made of the finest body armor available, with titanium weave and Kevlar and Nomex fabrics, making it bulletproof and fire resistant, and his utility belt contains Birdarangs, modified Batarangs that can function as projectile weapons or combine to form a sword, various explosive discs in both incendiary and freezing applications, grappling gun and D-Cel jumplines, and other tools including his metal bo staff and it's occasional Escrima fighting sticks and tonfar variations.

History: Robin comes from both a proud and tragic lineage…

(In DC Comics continuity, it was Dick Grayson who led the Titans, and had a great love with Starfire. In this strange world though, which combines elements not only from DC Comics but the "Diniverse" (the animated DC universe that began with Batman: The Animated Series and continues on today with Justice League Unlimited, named the "Diniverse" by fans after Paul Dini, who created and wrote for many of the more popular shows in this vein, which often featured altered or shortened character origins or histories), the Teen Titans cartoon (which has its own continuity, separate from both comics and Dini), and my own story events, which may have altered or outright eliminated certain stories from the show from after Season 1, a quirk of time has de-aged the rest of the Titans so that it is not Dick Grayson, in this world grown and become Nightwing, but Tim Drake, the current Robin. Although it is almost outright said the Robin in the Teen Titan show is Dick Grayson, when my stories and hence universe began to be created the show was still being very vague, and hence I decided the Robin on the show was Tim, mostly due to the fact that it was Tim Drake who changed the Robin costume from short shorts to actual pants and started using a bo. The main trick is the whole original relationship was Dick/Starfire, not Tim/Starfire. If you can accept Tim taking Dick's place, everything else is fine).

He became Robin after the death of the second Robin, Jason Todd, an event that nearly drove Batman mad. Tim, who through a series of lucky coincidences, had deduced Batman and Robin's secret identities, originally sought out Dick Grayson to ask him to resume the role of Robin, a role Tim found himself taking on in the end. After serving with Batman for some time, the events that brought the Titans together occurred, and Tim began dividing his time between Jump City and Gotham, more Jump City as he and Batman began to inevitably clash on certain issues. Robin has endured his own share of tragedy, losing his parents as well as friends and a child to the trials and perils of the hero life, but he stands tall and walks proud anyway. In a team populated by superhuman beings, Robin, a normal man, is the leader, and despite his failings and past collapse, we wouldn't have it any other way.

Titan Personal File No #2: Starfire

Real Name: Koriand'r (Earth approximation: Kory Anders)

Character Status: Canon (created by DC)

First Comic Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26

Powers: Natural ability of fly, heightened strength. Tamaranians can naturally absorb solar energy and project it as destruction force beams from their hands and occasionally their eyes: due to being experimented on by aliens Starfire can do this much faster and with greater power and range then an average Tamaranian. Trained to be a warrior. Highly emotional by nature, Starfire is naturally kind and sweet, but quick to anger and fierce in battle.

History: Starfire, aka Princess Koriand'r of Tamaran, also suffered in her early years, as she was taken from her home planet in a peace pact and sold into humiliating slavery (the exact nature of said slavery has never been revealed, and perhaps Starfire prefers it that way), during which the alien Psions experimented on both her and (unknown to Starfire), her sister Blackfire. Starfire eventually escaped and fled to Earth, landing in Jump City where she was fortunate to meet the fledgling, not yet named Titans (at the time Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Robin). She has never left the group since, and has become the heart and soul of the team. There were obvious sparks from the beginning between her and Robin, sparks which did not take long to ignite in roaring flame, as Tamaranians are passionate in all emotional areas, including love. Such love has not been without tragedy though: Starfire became pregnant and then lost the baby due to the vicious tactics of Rebecca Styles, the Blacktrinian elite warrior known as the White Hole (and was later told that due to the incompatible genetic codes of humans and Tamaranians, her body would have eventually rejected and lost the baby anyway). Starfire, much like Robin, has pressed on despite such things, and greets each new day with a smile. Be warned though: test that smile and it will swiftly become fangs…

Titan Personal File No #4: Raven

Real Name: None (Occasionally uses Rachel Roth as an alias)

Character Status: Canon (created by DC)

First Comic Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26

Powers: Telekinetic and telepathic abilities, mostly the former which manifest in tandem with her 'soul self', a mystical avatar/energy. Empathic abilities allow Raven to heal injuries by absorbing the pain into her body or drain emotions from people or animals, calming them. Adept sorceress, her body and birthright are still not fully known to her and have occasionally manifested in other mystical talents, including precognitive visions and the ability to temporarily freeze time.

History: The daughter of a human woman and the high demon creature Trigon the Terrible, Raven was born with a cursed birthright and a seemingly inevitable and terrible destiny. Originally raised in the peaceful dimension Azarath by an extra-dimensional peace cult, Raven was forced to flee to Earth when Trigon originally attempted to claim her and destroyed the dimension, though a final strike from the people of Azarath locked Trigon in another dimension, the Netherverse. She emerged in Jump City, and events occurred that made her join the Titans. Withdrawn and aloof due to the fact that her demonic heritage manifested through emotion and she had been trained to repress such things, Raven did not relate well to the other Titans. Despite the fact, she found herself attracted to Noel when he joined, perhaps because his own history mirrored her own. However, Raven could not explore such a thing: her father was attempting to escape the Netherverse through her, and eventually succeeded, fully corrupting Raven into a demon and attempting to conquer the universe. Noel had foreseen this however, and he and the Titans met Trigon head on in a battle where Noel managed to use an ancient mystical weapon known as the Fang to strike Trigon down and force him back into the Netherverse, where the gravely wounded demon was killed (or so it seemed) for his power, freeing Raven from his curse. Free to feel for the first time in her life, Raven and Noel have forged a strong bond, a bond that has helped each part through terrible times. Raven serves as the Titans' main weapon against supernatural evil, and her innate powers are enough to give any evil pause. Who knows, she may yet discover more power…thought it may come at a cost…

After all, sometimes things are not what they seem…

* * *

"Morning Noel. How's my favorite strategist?" Robin asked. Noel smirked. 

"Yeah right. I'm your ONLY strategist."

"Hey, watch that ego there buddy." Robin replied, still in a good-natured tone.

"It's not becoming." Raven added.

"Hey, no ego involved. It's technically true." Noel said.

"Oh REALLLY." Robin replied. "Gee, this must be mutiny then, because I recall that I am your leader and that we got along just fine with tactics before you arrived and during your absenses."

"Maybe so, but at our current grouping, think about it. You're mostly occupied with leading eight other members, Kory's training tends to be in individualistic combat, Raven tends to be occupied with the connecting and distributing of any and all tactical decisions, Vic thinks way too quickly for his plans to be properly transferred to us, Nigel needs to do both the medical and the hand to hand aspect of combat, Gar's not trained in such thinking, Tara's still learning, and Rob is…Rob. So all in all, when it comes to tactics, it's pretty much me."

"Or is that just applying medical workings to the innards of a drying machine, Friend Noel?" Starfire asked.

Everyone raised their eyebrow, having no idea what Star just said.

"…Kory…do you mean…spin doctoring?" Raven asked.

"Oh yes! That is the term!"

Everyone besides Starfire facevaulted.

"Ok…all joking aside…" Noel said, all business. "How are things going in Steel City?"

"Redundancy aside, our info was right: the Rogues ARE trying to get a foothold in here, for some reason, we haven't figured it out yet. They might want something this city has or just might want to use as a backup base if things get too hot in Keystone and Central." Robin said. The Rogues he was speaking of were the official name for the villains the Flash, Wally West, fought in his hometown(s).

"You know, I wish I could find the person who gave out the impression the Rogues were jokes, because virtually everyone in this city believed that, included our East branch, which meant they didn't much care for our presence at first." Raven picked up. "If it hadn't been for us, the East branch may have found out the hard way how dangerous they are."

"And that is just from the few skirmishes we have had. We have yet to engage them in a serious fight. It does worry me, a bit, but I believe that we can beat them." Starfire added.

"And if push comes to absolute shove, Wally's just a hail away. Still, I feel this is a good trial by fire for the Titans East. Blood didn't come back here after he broke out of jail, and the competition has been…somewhat lacking. At the same time, it's a good thing we're here…" Robin said, trailing off in the way of someone who dearly wants to speak their mind but won't until someone gives them the go-ahead.

"Oh? Having difficulties?" Noel asked.

And as if on cue, Speedy and Bumblebee wandered by in the background, yelling loudly at each other, though Noel couldn't make out any details. The special film that reduced Robin's eyes to blank white slits behind his mask couldn't hide his exasperation.

"I don't know how these guys function. No one can understand the twins, Aqualad keeps bursting the pipes in his sleep, Bumblebee's being visited by her Aunt Flo, Speedy's pissed off because of the lawsuit Green Arrow's trying to file against him…"

"Oh, you mean the Speedy behind you, right? Not Roy Harper the first Speedy, who's grown up and with the Outsiders, but rather the teenager behind you, who is not Roy Harper, but rather a new guy who took up the Speedy mantle to tick Green Arrow off, and hence is not connected to Green Arrow unlike the first Speedy, much like your Aqualad isn't the original Aqualad, who is now a sorcerer named Tempest, but rather a new Atlantean teen who took the name of Aqualad because Tempest, the original Aqualad helped him out and hence he took the name Aqualad to honor him?" Noel said in the mother of all run-on sentences.

The three Titans stared at him. Starfire apparently deciphered his sentence first.

"Oh Friend Noel, that was a marvelous exposition on what has been done to try and explain away the gaps and plot holes that has come from combining three different canons with someone's own ideas!" Starfire said.

A loud crash sounded in the distance.

"Pare atacando forth wall!" Came a pair of perfectly synched Spanish accented and high voices from somewhere off to the side.

"The author is starting her jokes early, I must say…" Starfire said as she sweatdropped.

"Anyway, Speedy's ticked off about that lawsuit, because Green Arrow's ticked off about the lawsuit Batman's filed against HIM, and Wildebeast and that fire guy keep calling and asking why THEY don't get to be on Titans East!"

"Hotspot." Raven said.

"Right, Hotspot."

"Sounds fun. Are they at least pulling their weight in combat? The Rogues are no laughing matter."

"Yeah, mostly. Though nobody can decide if Speedy or Bumblebee's in charge…"

"WHAT'S TO DECIDE!" Bumblebee yelled as her face suddenly filled the entire screen, causing Noel to fall over in surprise.

"Don't do that." Noel said as he got up.

"Listen ho…"

"CALM DOWN OR I'LL GO OVER THERE AND TAKE OVER AS LEADER, AND BELIEVE ME IF I DO THAT YOU'LL BE LONGING FOR CYBORG!" Noel roared, not in the mood for argument.

"I already long for Cyborg…" Bumblebee said, quietly…but not quietly enough. "Oops, did I say that out loud?"

Robin managed to shuffle Bumblebee away from her position, and the embarrassed teen took the opportunity to make a quick escape.

"Getting back on topic, how are you, Star, Raven." Noel said. Starfire waved while Raven nodded. "Hey Robin, I heard Mas and Menos have a thing for your girlfriend. Is that developing in any bad ways?"

"Uhhh…" Robin said, clearly not wanting to reveal anything about what he knew.

"I woke up last night and they were smelling my hair." Starfire said, in her typical 'this situation requires tact but I don't know that" way. Noel arched an eyebrow. "Is this a normal part of Earth mating rituals? Because if it is, Robin is abnormal. In a good way."

"No Star, this isn't normal. I thought those twins were a bit odd already, but they might be outright freaky if…"

Mas Y Menos appeared out of nowhere even quicker then Bumblebee did, their faces pressed up against the screen as they yelled loudly in Spanish, causing Noel to fall over again. He got up, looking irritated, as the twins continued their incomprehensible ranting. Robin and Raven's heads occasionally peaked into blank spaces on the screen, but it was clear that they weren't sure what to do to stop the twins' angry yelling. Growling to himself, Noel fired off a Shimmer line and retrieved a "Spanish for Dummies" book that just happened to be nearby, trying to tune out the twins' continued yelling as he searched for an appropriate counter. However, even when he tried, he couldn't get a word in edgewise, and he sighed and looked upon the STILL yelling twins with angry vexation.

"Hey, he is not the father of a motherless goat!" Rob said, as he was suddenly standing next to Noel, who jumped. "Hey Noel, still can't find the channel. This has to do with Starfire right? Let me handle this." Rob said, and then yelled in rapid fire Spanish at the twins.

And just like that, they cut off their rant, and then backed away from the screen and dejectedly shuffled off to the corner.

"What did you tell them?" Noel asked.

"That Starfire has alien venereal diseases and the only reason that Robin can stand it is because he's a eunuch." Rob said.

Noel blinked.

"…This book was such a waste of money…" Noel said, tossing it aside.

"Well, not if you want to talk to a preschooler who's slow in the head."

"Are you insinuating something?"

"Que?" Rob replied.

"Ok, guys, guys." Robin said, as he finished chuckling at what Rob had told Mas Y Menos: thinking outside the box like that was at times the only thing that worked, and Robin was relieved, impressed, and amused. "Enough on this end. What's going on with that end?"

"Nothing much. City's been pretty…" Noel said, and then suddenly found the Gauntlet energy over his mouth.

"Be quiet! We already have five demi-god enemies, if you say the city's been quiet you'll bamf another one into existence!"

A loud crumbling noise sounded off to the side.

"Beating the joke right into the ground, eh, dear author?" Said a sign that Noel was now holding up.

Lightning struck the sign.

It disintegrated as Noel stood there, covered in soot.

"Right." Noel said, the Gauntlet gag having been removed, and shook off the soot and turned back to the computer. "It's been PRETTY QUIET…"

Nothing happened.

"Just small time stuff. Mostly I've been working on the computer training simulator."

"Be careful with that Noel. It's still full of bugs."

"Oh yeah, didn't stop him from arranging a one on one match with Slade." Rob said. Noel gave Rob a dirty look, while Robin looked a tad bit alarmed.

"Slade? You tried to fight the Slade program? Alone?"

"I set it on its lowest difficulty." Noel said, with more lameness then he would have liked.

"What good is that? Slade's not a foe you can just beat on Noel!"

"That's why I turned the difficulty up!" Rob said.

"And hence bugging up the program even more!" Noel said, as he found himself in a game of "pass the blame".

"And if Rob actually made the program more like Slade, you have no business fighting him alone Noel. You couldn't beat Slade alone."

"I…maybe!" Noel said lamely.

"Noel, take it from me. You could not beat Slade alone. Even if he had both arms died behind his back." Robin said.

"And was standing on one foot." Starfire added.

"And blindfolded." Raven tacked on.

"And drunk." Rob finished.

"SHUT UP! YOU! GET GET OUT OUT OUT OUT OUT!" Noel said, as he shoved Rob off the edge of the viewscreen and returned to the center. "GETTING BACK ON TRACK, there is one thing Robin. You know the Flash Museum is on tour?"

"Vaguely."

"Well, it's coming to Jump City next, and Wally dropped by with the centerpiece of it: the Cosmic Treadmill. He asked us to look after it until the rest of the museum gets here. So we, or rather I, have hidden it in a storeroom and disguised it with a few special holopins."

"And hence I can't get to it, so it's probably safe." Rob said, sticking his head back into the frame. A second later a Shimmer strand once again shoved him away.

"The Cosmic Treadmill? That's the device that let's Speed Force users travel back through time, correct?" Starfire asked.

"Yes."

"Well Friend Noel, why hide it? Cannot only Speed Force users, like the Flash and Kid Flash, use such a machine? Non-Speed Force users should be fine."

"Right, the Cosmic Treadmill mixed with normal humans cannot produce any negative results. Tell that to Hunter Zolomon." Raven commented.

"Enough. I had enough of Speed Force users and their damn run around the world before they punch you tricks with Light City."

"Not to mention phasing through walls and making them explode, and letting you strike stuff at super speed without reducing your limbs to destroyed pulp, and all the other stuff that makes the Speed Force the biggest Deus Ex Machina next to the Mother Box." Rob said, having once again returned. Noel looked irritatingly at him.

"Shoo!"

"And other stuff that doesn't make any sense. I mean, the Speed Force is supposedly the interdimensional place that our speedsters tap into for their power. It's essentially the power of going fast, isn't it?" Rob asked, even as Noel tried to shove him off the screen again. "But Flash has his costume made out of Speed Force energy! I mean, what the hell! Wally has pants made out of GOES FAST…!" Rob said as Noel finally managed to shove him off the screen again.

"Don't question the Speed Force, you'll go nuts. And technically Hunter, or rather Zoom didn't use the Speed Force: the Treadmill caused him to shift slightly out of the flow of time and he found he could manipulate time to give the illusion of super speed, if you want to be procedural."

"True. And good idea Noel. Who knows what room it's in?"

"Only Victor and myself, and none of the other Titans have any reason to look for it. But that reminds me Robin. You made Victor and I co-leaders while you were away. But Victor's been spending most of his time locked up in his room."  
"Oh? Is something wrong?"

"I don't think so, at least not in any serious way. But he's really been acting weird…and it's keeping him from fully pulling his weight, if you know what I mean."

"I think it started last week when Gar broke the Gamestation while playing with your Birdarangs." Rob said, walking in again, as Noel's eyes gazed skyward in exasperation at his inability to get rid of the teen.

"No, I think it started before that. Though that may have made it worse." Noel said.

"Camel, straw, fill in the blanks." Rob said.

"Where ARE Gar and Tara anyway?" Robin asked.

"Haven't seen them today. Rob?"

"They're just goofing around. You know how new couples are."

"Oh yes how well we do…" Robin said. Raven and Starfire looked at him, not comprehending.

"You guys were off at Amity Park, you didn't get the joy of seeing Gar and Tara in the first blooms of their relationship. Take the worst romantic comedy you can imagine, and imagine something a hundred times worse." Rob groaned.

"That bad huh." Noel commented.

"No, it was even worse."

"Jealous Rob?"

"Oh be quiet! The only reason I don't have a girlfriend is because the damn author…"

Thunder rumbled ominously.

"Surely knows what she's doing!" Rob quickly said.

"So they're just fooling around. You're lucky Noel, they've probably cooled off for the moment. Back when they started I walked in on them with ice cream and chocolate fudge, and in the end I realized I was glad they were wearing clothes." Robin said.

"That's what happens when a long time to bridge connection finally forms." Raven said. The Titans on her side looked at her, and as Noel put a hand behind his head and tried to look uninterested, she narrowed her eyes. "I'm not speaking from experience."

"Right. So Green Wonder and the Stick are off fooling around. All in all that sounds all right."

"Let's hope you're not wrong." Robin replied.

* * *

Noel was wrong. 

"It's electrifying!" Gar Logan sang, as he danced down a hallway, Tara alongside him, a radio floating on a rock behind them. For lack of nothing better to do, they were, as mentioned, goofing off, and that goofing off was currently singing along to the radio, which was playing one of the songs from _Grease._ Neither of the two could really sing, but combined with the fact they were singing along with the radio and were just having a little fun together rather then trying out for American Idol, it didn't really matter.

"You're the one that I want! You are the one going, hoo hoo hoo!" The two sang. And since I already feel like I'm getting cavities…

* * *

Titan Personal File No #5: Beast Boy 

Real Name: Garfield "Gar" Logan

Character Status: Canon (created by DC)

First Comic Appearance: Doom Patrol (1st Series) #99

Powers: Can take on the form and abilities of any animal he chooses, including extinct and mystical animals. The form of the animal must be accurate though (for example, Beast Boy cannot become a mouse sized bear or a giant fly), and Beast Boy does not inherit any special abilities of the mystical animals (he cannot breathe fire if he becomes a dragon, for example). While Beast Boy can push his form to break these conditions, such actions result in murderous strain that pretty much renders Beast Boy useless. Also, swapping forms that have a great variety in size (an ant to a dinosaur) can also cause him to suffer, though intense training has pretty much rendered that occurrence rare.

History: Of all the Titans, Gar Logan has perhaps the least skeletons in his closet. His parents were scientists attempting to isolate the genetic bond between animals and humans, and they brought their young son along with them to Africa, where he was attacked and bitten by an extremely rare species of green-furred monkey and infected with the Sakutia virus, a virus that was irrevocably fatal. However, Gar's parents were able to synthesize a cure, which had the side effect of turning Gar green and granting him his shapeshifting powers. Soon afterward, Gar's parents died in a boating accident, and after his inheritance was squandered by a seemingly close family friend, Gar first headed to Hollywood, where he had his fifteen minutes as a 'child star' before flaming out and losing most of his money again, and then to Jump City where he attempted to be a solo hero with mild success…until he met Cyborg. The rest is history.

Gar, as mentioned, has suffered little of the trouble that has plagued other Titans: normally he is the one attempting to support people through their troubles. He has had a few failed relationships (his mild attraction to Raven fell through after she began seeing Noel, and a relationship with the outspoken vigilante Charm also crashed and burned) before destiny finally occurred and he found a partner in the geokinetic Terra. The new couple is still full of the energy that fresh, good relationships have…not that that's a good thing…

Titan Personal File No #29: Terra

Real Name: Tara Markov

Character Status: Canon (created by DC)

First Comic Appearance: New Teen Titans (1st Series) #26

Powers: A master geokinetic, a specialized form of telekinesis that gives Terra complete mastery of the earth: she can create flying island to ride or moving creatures of stone and soil, generating earthquakes, or calling forth molten lava or mudslides.

History: Terra was a girl on the run, coming from a past that apparently even she barely remembers, a past we have not pressed her on. Her powers, wild and uncontrolled, would inevitably cause any place she settled to turn against her, causing the poor girl to constantly be on the run until she arrived at Jump City. Her attempt to flee the Titans due to her then perceived shame of her lack of control was stopped by Gauntlet…

(And hence prevented Terra from entering Slade's embrace, becoming his apprentice, and being turned to stone…)

…and Terra stayed on. Her road has been rocky, no pun intended, as she has struggled with attempts to fully control her abilities, her fears of rejection and the 'life', and her feelings for Gar Logan, which constantly seemed to fall apart on the cusp of realization more then a few times. However, in the end Terra has come through, and finally connected with Beast Boy as well.

Now we just have to deal with their cute couple nonsense…

* * *

"Oh I am free! Oh yes indeed!" The two sang, as they rounded a corner… 

Unfortunately, Tara was too busy dancing with Gar to really pay attention to what her radio carrying rock was doing, and hence it didn't quite make the corner, instead slamming into the wall. The music cut off abruptly as the radio fell off the rock and shattered against the floor.

"Awwww man!" Gar complained, as he turned and headed back to look at the radio, now a shattered wreck. "Look what you did!"

"Look what I did? You're the one who kept distracting me by stepping on my foot, clumsy!" Tara said, giving Gar a shove on the chest. It was playful though: it was a just a generic radio after all. Still, Tara was somewhat larger then Gar and hence managed to push him back.

Then his size tripled as he turned into a gorilla, looking down on Tara with mock intimidation. Tara pretended to be scared…and then she reached and began tickling him.

"Ah! Stop! No fair! Stop!" Beast Boy said, as he immediately started to laugh and then reverted to his normal form, Tara driving him to the ground as she continued to tickle him.

"I don't think Grodd has anything to worry about." She said, as she stopped tickling.

Beast Boy turned into a lobster and pinched Terra's toe, as she and Beast Boy were in civilian clothes and she was wearing sandals.

"Ow!" Tara said, hopping on one foot as Gar returned to human again. "Ok Mr. Pinchy, now you can go find a new radio!"

"Uh…I don't know where one is." Gar said.

"You don't? Oh well, guess we'll have to look for one!" Tara said, and ran off. Gar shrugged and chased after her.

Ah, young love.

Barf, barf.

* * *

"And Cyborg's in his room. You sure there isn't a problem?" 

"None we can solve by talking it out." Noel says.

"What about everyone else?"

"Nigel's doing paperwork, Sophie's still sleeping, and Rob is going his best to prepare me a case of justifiable homicide." Noel said, giving the blonde teen a slight glare: Rob pretended to cower away.

"So that's everything?"

"On the metahuman front…" Noel said, letting his words trail off, as he and Robin locked eyes. Robin knew a signal when he saw it.

"Star, Raven, could you keep the Titans East away from the monitor for a bit?" Robin asked, gesturing. The two females knew that tone, as they left immediately. Robin looked at Rob, and even the irreverent teenager knew this was something that he shouldn't be listening in on, and quickly left the room. This would be between Noel and Tim, who in their own ways were both disciples of the Bat. And that caused them to come into contact with certain things that they did not involve the Titans in if they could avoid it. The truly ugly part of humanity.

"Mick Dobbins is back in town." Noel said. Robin's eyes narrowed, this time pinching his visage with anger.

"I was certain the message we sent to his father last time would keep him out of our city for good."

"The fucking prick's incorrigible. His appetites control him, and the way he was raised, he can't just go out and rape babies, he has to thumb his nose at the people who would stop him." Noel said. The Mick Dobbins the two were speaking of was the son of Raynor Dobbins, an upcoming businessman in Florida who was almost on the highest echelon of power. He was relatively clean, but misplaced loyalty and love was causing him to do something far worse then scummy business practices: protect his son, who was a spoiled brat who thought everyone in the world existed to serve him. That, and a pedophile. Well, ALLEGED pedophile: no hard evidence had ever been brought against the shit because his father kept using his connections to make the trouble go away. And the arrogant child immediately went out and indulged himself again. Noel and Robin, in their spare hours, had been tracking him for the past four months, as soon as he turned up in Jump City and a seven-year-old girl disappeared. In the end, Robin and Noel hadn't been able to firmly connect Dobbins to the girl, or any of the other girls (eight in all) whose names had come up in terms of cases of molestation or disappearance in Florida that Robin and Noel had found tentative links connecting back to Dobbins. They'd settled for kicking his ass and throwing him out of Jump City. Elder Dobbins fired back with several lawsuits, which Mick had thought would distract the Titans enough for him to sneak back into Jump City and prey on some more children, both satisfying his sickness and taunting the supposed impotence of the Titans. Another severe ass-kicking, this time of the goons Mick surrounded himself with, stone cold men who would do anything for money, including protect scum like him, had sent Dobbins scurrying back to the safety of his daddy…but not for long. He was being seen around town again, ostensibly as a frontrunner to his father bringing business and jobs to Jump City. He'd also hit the Titans with a restraining order that forbid them from coming within a hundred meters of him. He lacked true intelligence, but had plenty of cunning, knowing just how to play the system and use it against the Titans.

Noel knew that Dobbins was guilty. He had smelled it on the man. And he wasn't going let another little girl suffer and possibly die because of the hoops the law had to jump through. He desperately wanted to find something that would stick. But with Robin gone, he didn't have a good feeling. Tim was the true detective of the two: Noel wasn't bad but a far cry from the Teen Wonder. Still, he knew Dobbins was in town, and Robin could certainly do some long-range brainstorming with him when they both caught a minute. Noel really hoped that luck would bless them soon: when the system failed as badly as it did with men like Dobbins, Noel tended to see red and started to teeter on a dangerous abyss, one he never wanted to cross.

"I gave him a good scare last time. Knowing his mindset, he might screw up…hopefully before anything happens." Robin said.

"Right."

"Keep both eyes on him."

"Peeled." Noel said. The bile in his throat made him wonder if a system that forced them to use such chosen tactics, such complicated and possibly utterly ineffectual tactics, to prevent children from being hurt, was worth protecting, or using at all.

And as always, he came to the answer: maybe not, but it was better then the alternative.

"I'll call Oracle. Maybe Dick can swing by and lend a hand."

"It would be appreciated. Hell, even Ralph would be good…then again, this might not be his kind of case…not after Sue…"

"Noel, you're obsessing."

"He's pure scum Robin. He should be in jail."

"And if wishes were horses, all beggars would ride." Raven said as she appeared next to Robin. "I picked up that the information exchange between you two was starting to devolve into the brooding, so I think I'll cut it off."

"Besides, you have company again." Robin said, and Noel, not really surprised, found Rob next to him again.

"Have you gone deaf? Do I have to use another language? Go away! Allez-vous-en! Salga! Gehen Sie Weg! Descedo! CLICK CLICK BLOODY CLICK AWAY!"

Rob stood there, an incomprehensive look on his face. Noel gave up and turned back to Robin: Starfire had joined him in front of the monitor while Raven had moved away a bit, looking a bit bothered.

"In conclusion, that's everything. Everything ok on that end?" Noel said, noticing Raven as she went off screen and came back looking even more uncomfortable.

"Pretty much."

"You think you'll need any help with the Rogues?" Noel asked, trying more to figure out what was going on with Raven.

"I think we'll be ok overall…" Robin said, and then was jostled by Raven as she bumped into him. A small hand peeped into the frame, offering a rose.

"Oh look. With Starfire off limits, they've decided to make a play for your girl." Rob said, eagerly anticipating Noel's reaction.

"Ugh. I gave them some mental warning: why are they still after me?" Raven growled as Ma Y Menos peeked into the frame again, looking at Raven in a lovesick way.

"Uh guys…" Robin said, trying to defuse the situation.

"ARGH!" Noel yelled. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM HER OR I'LL RIP OUT YOUR EYES AND JAM THEM UP YOUR RECTUMS SO YOU CAN WATCH ME KICK YOUR ASSES!"

"Lift off, we have lift off." Rob said, as Mas Y Menos looked at the screen, their attention gotten by the noise.

"Que?" Mas said.

"My dear friends, if you value your testicles, you will avoid the Goth. Though I have seen pictures that indicate Aqualad might be interested." Rob said in Spanish. The two twins jerked and then made tracks away from Raven.

"Heh." Speedy said, as he poked his head into the shot. "He's pretty good at managing those two. Trade you Bumblebee for him."

"I HEARD THAT!"

"This may cause a few aneurysms, but no." Noel replied.

"Huh, my left arm is tingling, my surprise sense must be going off…that or the fact my finger's in that socket." Rob said.

A Shimmer strand yanked Rob's hand away from said socket with a snap of "Get away from that!"

"Hmmpph! I know when I'm not appreciated!" Rob said, and made a big show of leaving.

"No you don't, because if you did, you've had done that twenty-five minutes ago!" Noel called after him.

"A day in the life." Raven commented.

"Eh, there are worse problems to deal with." Noel said. "Well Tim, that it?"

"Pretty much. I'll contact you if I hear anything from any front."

"Understood. Signing off." Noel said, and saluted his leader. Tim returned it, and Raven gave him a slight smile, which Noel acknowledged with a nod.

And then, Aqualad stuck his head into the shot.

"Hey, wait a minute! Why does EVERYONE question my sexu…"

The screen blinked off, once again revealing the programs Noel had been working on earlier. Noel shook his head.

"Sorry Tim, that's one thing I can't help you with." Noel said, and returned to his work.

* * *

"Why do we have so much junk?" 

"I think there's a quota." Gar said as he keyed open the code to the latest room he and Tara were exploring in an attempt to find another radio. Considering how much high tech gear the Titans had lying around (literally in some cases), a normal radio had proven elusive. The only one that they had managed to find was in one of the showers, and the volume only really worked in the bathroom itself, which was too small to dance in. They couldn't rip the radio out of the wall either, and Gar's suggestion to Tara that they use the shower for another purpose had just earned him a slap. So now he and Tara were poking around some of the storage rooms, hoping that maybe someone had dumped a radio of some kind in one. So far, no good, as he and Tara entered the room and flipped on the light. Another room of odds and ends, some neatly organized and some not so much. The couple began poking around anyway.

"Ew. What's this?" Tara asked, as she pulled out a messy broken sword, a tiny bit of metal and the hilt that was remained of the former weapon.

"Think that belonged to a former member. Short lived. Guy called Kid Samurai, got into a fight with Robin over Starfire, and went our separate ways. In the days after the Final Night we were pretty tense and thought that inducing a few new members might make us safer. None of them worked out…HELLO!" Gar said as he moved a cardboard box aside and found an old boom box. "Hmmmmm, CD Player's busted. Vic must have put it aside with plans to repair it and forgotten about it. But the radio should still work…" Gar said, as he flipped the machine over and put the batteries of the broken radio in the empty slots. "Ok here we go…"

Gar began fiddling with the levers, and snatches of music began coming from the old boom box.

"All right!" Tara said, as Gar fiddled with the machine some more and came unto a hip-hop tune of some kind, and he put the boom box down and started dancing with Tara. The less said about said dance the better: let's just say that Beast Boy was so white he was on the verge of regaining his former Caucasian skin tint, if you know what I mean.

The tune eventually ended and another, throbbing hip-hop tune came on, as Gar and Tara continued to dance around the storage room. Gar stomped his feet to the music, and Tara responded by stomping louder, so Gar stomped LOUDER, and Tara, smirking, did an exaggerated pantomime of lifting her foot and then bringing it down as she triggered a very minor earth tremor at the same time. Back at the computer room, Noel glanced up from his work at the slight shake, then shrugged and resumed his work.

"Ohhhhhhh…" Gar said, in the way of someone who in theory can't believe what a person just did in his or her issue of a challenge but in reality understands it perfectly and knows just how to top it, as Gar rubbed his hands together. Tara, perhaps getting an inkling of what was coming, backed up a bit.

Gar transformed into a rhino, and began rearing up on his hind legs for the mother of all stomps…

And that was when it finally happened, as Gar had misjudged how high the ceiling was and banged his horn against it, causing him to lose his balance, and not wanting to risk falling on Tara, he pinwheeled away and started falling towards a stacked pile of junk. Well the debris wouldn't hurt his tough rhino hide…

Except his legs went through the debris.

And crunched on something that shouldn't have been in a pile of boxes of old clothes and discarded pictures. Like metal.

"Ahhhhhhh!" Gar screamed, as he felt his feet crushing into a metal structure as sparks began to fly from them, something that just made Gar panic more and attempt to repeatedly get his feet out of whatever he had stepped on, except he still hadn't fully regained his balance and as a result he kept stepping on whatever was hidden behind the false junk with one foot as soon as he freed the other, essentially stomping on it for several seconds before he finally put his head together enough to return to human size, recoiling away from more sprays of sparks as Tara ran up to his side, ready to defend him if this was some incredibly convoluted plan of attack…

And then the pile of junk shimmered and vanished, revealing what it had been hiding: a fancy, futuristic treadmill…which had been reduced to a mangled wreck due to Gar's little panicky dance on it. As Gar and Tara stared at the ruined treadmill, Gar recognized it.

"Oh man…we are in so much trouble…" He groaned.

Back at the computer, a beeping alarm caught Noel's attention, and he closed the file he was working on and called up the reason for the alert. A few button tapes isolated the problem and called up the video feed of the storage room…and a frantic Gar and Tara, whose brilliant plan in the immediate aftermath of the accident had pretty much been to run around impotently before they stopped and stared at the wreckage of the Cosmic Treadmill again, no longer hidden by the holopins after Gar had accidentally done his little dance.

"Oh for the love of…" Noel said in exasperation, and then turned on the intercom, as Gar and Tara looked like they were on the verge of sneaking away. "HOLD IT!"

The two jumped and then stared at the ceiling, not quite able to make out where the voice was coming from.

"Stay there you two!" Noel said. "I'm coming down there."

"But…" Gar protested.

"Just stay there!" Noel said, and cut off the intercom.

"Oh no. Is he gonna kill us?" Tara asked.

"I don't think he can do that without Robin's permission." Gar tried to joke. It fell flat.

"Hey, you were on the team before him! Can't you pull rank or something?" Tara asked.

"You want me to argue with Noel? I think they've got whole Internet sites on why it's a bad thing to argue with No…"

The door slid open as Noel walked in, and Gar suddenly found himself standing at attention next to Tara. It took him another second to realize that Noel technically didn't have that kind of authority over him, but by that time Noel was inspected the thoroughly smashed Cosmic Treadmill, as it issued occasional bursts of sparks.

"These look suspiciously like rhinoceros footprints."

"Uh…those could have been planted!" Gar said. Tara rolled her eyes: she had by now accepted that she was caught and it would be best if she went with it, but of course Gar had other ideas…

"Planted." Noel said, his voice so thick with skepticism he probably could have bottled and sold it. "The one meta on this team with the ability to turn into animals happens to be in the same room with a device that appears like it was repeatedly stepped on by a rhinoceros, and it could be planted."

"There are ways! Like, uh, Gauntlet could have made the rhino footprint with his force field!"

"Gauntlet is in the TV Room Gar."

"Uh…"

"And even if he wasn't, I'm going to have to call Occam's Razor on this. Which is simpler Gar: You smashed the device and left rhino prints, or you were in the room dancing and someone else who could make rhino prints smashed it without showing up on the security cameras and without anyone else seeing them?" Noel said, as he glanced back at the smashed device.

"But…uh…but I…aw man!" Gar said, giving up. "Dude, I protest! We were just looking for a radio! That thing was hidden by a hologram, I didn't know it was there…!" Gar said.

"Yes it was." Noel said, as he turned back to the two. He didn't look angry, which Gar took as a good sign, but he didn't look happy either, so Gar figured he wasn't entirely off the hook. "It was hidden, and you had no idea it was here…but you also couldn't wait to make it back to the rec room or your rooms to dance, you just HAD to go dancing around here…Gar, really, that does show a small lack of thinking."

"But that's what Gar's known for!" Tara said, trying to defuse the situation with humor.

"Maybe so Tara, but this isn't a chair or something. This is the Cosmic Treadmill! You can't just go into a store and buy another one! Now Cyborg is going to have to put aside the time to fix it, and Wally could be angry…"

"Can Wally GET angry?" Gar asked.

"Also moot. The end result is you two acted irresponsibly, so I'm afraid you have to be punished."

"What? You can't do that!" Tara protested.

"You're right. I can't. That's why I'm going to get the team together and they'll vote on the punishment. Hell, maybe they'll vote not to punish you, though I'm pretty sure even all of THEM will agree you shouldn't just walk away from this."

"Dude, I protest! You're not the sole leader!" Gar complained, though without a lot of vehemence.

"Right, hence why I am getting Victor."

"But…we…man Noel, you're no fun!" Tara added.

"You're right. That's part of being a leader. I don't have fun so you can. And before you begin questioning my qualifications as a leader, yes on more then a few issues I suck. Hence why I'm the co-leader instead of THE leader. Now head to the main chamber."

"Awwwwwwww…" Tara complained. "Hey wait a sec, one question! Why was it hidden with a hologram in the first place?"

"So Rob wouldn't break a dish and get the magnificent idea of coming in here and trying to go back in time to prevent the broken dish. We don't need another Zoom. Do you have any idea what Rob could do with super speed?"

"Be the world's greatest thief and/or peeping Tom mostly." Rob said as he casually strolled into the room. Noel arched an eyebrow.

"Rob, what are you doing, following me…oh forget it. Escort these two to the main room, we're having a meeting."

"…For the record, I didn't know those WERE Raven's cookies." Rob said.

"No! This is about these two breaking the Cosmic Treadmill! They need to be punished, and we're going to vote on it."

"Wait, someone ELSE is being punished?"

Noel sighed inwardly.

"Yes Rob." He said, knowing that the storm of smartass remarks that could be unleashed by those two words were legion.

"Well…to use an old robot saying, this does not compute." Rob said. "Ah well. At least nobody knows about me accidentally stepping on the Halo 2 disc."

"Dude, WHAT?" Beast Boy exploded.

"…Nuts." Rob replied, sweatdropping.

"Enough! Rob, escort these two! You can work out video game issues among yourselves! Ugh!" Noel said, throwing up his hands. Rob left the room, followed by Gar, who looked more like he was chasing the teen instead of being led by him as he yelled repeatedly about the breakage of his video game. Tara followed, looking as exasperated as Noel, as Noel looked over the wrecked treadmill once more to make sure it wasn't going to explode and suck all the Titans into another dimension or something in that vein (he didn't need any more nonsense at the moment, interdimensional or otherwise), and then left the room, locking it as he pulled out his communicator. He called Nigel and told him about the meeting, and then tried to contact Cyborg. He got no answer. Another and a third attempt failed.

"Crap. He must have turned his communicator off to do work. Guess I have to go see him personally." Noel said, heading down the hallway. He had turned the corner and was making for the stairs when a door slid open and a sleepy eyed, somewhat chubby woman with brown hair and wearing striped pajamas stumbled out, rubbing at her eyes.

"…Uh Noel, is that you?" Sophie Mathews asked.

* * *

Titan Personal File No #88: Sophie Mathews 

Real Name: Sophie Mathews

Character Status: Original (created by Jedi-And)

First Appearance: Flashing Lights and Sounds

Powers: After accidentally ingesting the mutated blood of a mutant who had ingested some of Kirk Langstrom, the Man-Bat's mutating serum, Sophie gained a freak variation on the Man-Bat's powers: instead of morphing into a giant bat, Sophie could transform part of or her entire body, as well as anyone she was touching, into a flock of bats. The bats have no special powers outside of the natural abilities of bats, and they will reform into whatever position Sophie was in when they come back together. The power also drains Sophie, so she cannot utilize it too many times without risking passing out or worse. The bats also have a nasty habit of reforming in the wrong place.

History: Sophie Mathews was born to the Mathews family, a dynasty whose company, the Mathews Foundation, rivaled the big business of the world such as WayneTech and CollinsCorp. However, that in and of itself was not too bad until Sophie's birth mother died and her father married an actress who helped boost the family's coffers even more. Despite this influx of wealth, a young Sophie noticed that all her stepmother and father were doing was helping themselves, leaving her to be pretty much raised, in a moral sense, by her grandfather, who was a mortician and funeral director by trade. When he died, Sophie took over his funeral business, partly out of family obligation and partly to spite her brother Tony, who had learned from his parents the fine art of greed and hence just wanted the land and none of the history. A backlog of work caused Sophie to misplace her coffee, which inadvertently had mutated blood drip into it and cause her own change when she drank it. After recovering from the shock, she attempted to move on with her life until she met Nigel Hastings, who was at the time in 'exile' from the team. She took the alien in, and then due to bad timing her brother made another attempt to take the funeral home, this time actually succeeding due to a legal loophole and leaving the undertaker and the alien in the cold until Nigel was welcomed back to the Titans. Since then, Sophie has acted mostly as an aide to the Titans, helping out wherever she can, as she does not aspire to be a superhero despite her mutation and does not go out with the Titans on missions. When not doing that she attempts to earn some disposable income working at the local coroner as Jump City's Medical Examiner. She eventually began dating Nigel, despite disapproval from just about everyone outside of the Titans, most of whom consider the alien to be a monster. Good natured, Sophie is forever nice to everyone…except Terra, who seems to get great joy out of needling the larger woman. I swear, their feud makes Robin/Slade's and Noel/Jack's look tame at times…

* * *

"Yes Sophie. Good to know you could join us in the land of living. I think it's actually before noon." Noel said. 

"Ha…ha. You try doing a child who's been hit by a car's autopsy, looking at something that was cut down in the prime of life…it wrings you out Noel." Sophie muttered, rubbing at her eyes. "What's doing on? I heard a faint racket."

"Oh nothing much, dancing rhinoceroses, accused ghost footprint makers, loose lips sinking ships, the usual." Noel said. Sophie looked at Noel with wry confusion. "It's Titan business Sophie. It doesn't really concern you."

"Hmmmm." Sophie said. "Where's Nigel?"

"Probably in the main room, if not that his office, and I have to run before Gar dupes Rob into a race around the world in order to escape his needed discipline. See you later Sophie." Noel said, and headed down the hall. Sophie yawned and turned back into her room, still trying to decide if she should fall back into bed or accept that it was time to get up and get dressed, as Noel headed off to Cyborg's room.

* * *

Titan Personal File No #3: Cyborg 

Real Name: Victor Stone

Character Status: Canon (created by DC)

First Comic Appearance: DC Comics Presents #26

Powers: Cyborg body as per namesake. Body is composed of molybdemun steel, which grants enhanced strength and endurance. Enhanced vision from cybernetic eye, can also interface with any computer system. Body contains an arsenal of weapons and tools, most famous one being the right-handed sonic/concussive canon. Expert engineer and mechanic.

History: Victor Stone was a child of scientist parents whose own curiosity led to his change. His mother, during an experiment, accidentally unleashed a creature from another dimension, who killed her and gravely wounded Victor Stone, who would have died as well had his father not rescued him and transformed him into a cyborg. Bitter at first, Cyborg's meeting with Gar Logan, and the events that occurred a month afterward, helped to convince Victor that his new abilities could allow him to do great good, if he was willing to use them.

Like most of the Titans, it hasn't been easy. Cyborg…I have had to endure with struggles that the loss of my flesh meant the loss of my humanity, and that my robotic form may forever limit me to an enhanced but never changing level. I have had to weather and forgive my disagreements with my fellow Titans. Recently, I have had to deal with a sense of great violation, first being promised back my seemingly lost humanity and then having what makes me special now stolen and used against me, my friends, and my city. And in that issue, along with another one, I now face a new challenge…

* * *

Cyborg stopped speaking into the microphone he had been using to record his personal log, having finished going through and updating the entire main Titan files. He stared at the glowing computer screen for a moment, as if it could provide the answers to the questions that now bothered him, and then he continued. 

"Some time ago, I met a woman, Latrisha Dryce, and she saw past my supposed differences to the real me. We dated…I felt that something deep could develop…but…I never got that chance. She was taken from me, murdered by a racist organization that attempted to set up a base within Jump City. I took it apart and avenged her death, but what happened that night left deep marks on me. I thought I could never love again, that seeing such a horror would harden my heart against that kind of feeling for the rest of my life…but recently, I've found the beginnings of it again. And it confuses me. Not just because I'm feeling this way…but because after last time, I wonder if I can allow myself to feel in such a way again…especially considering…who she is…"

Victor paused, and then looked at the picture he was holding in one hand. In the darkness of the room, it was barely visible, but Victor's enhanced eye saw it clearly anyway: Llarenes Morath, the Troika and HIVE member known as Jinx. This was a security photo taken during a bank robbery, caught in mid-air, as Jinx leapt, her face wild with wicked joy. Cyborg had a few other photos, but this one was the best to reminisce over, because Jinx, at least in a mischievous teen crush sense, had seemingly returned some of Cyborg's feelings, including sending him a few more risqué pictures of her. Whether her feelings went any deeper then that, Cyborg didn't know. That was another thing that confused him.

"It's true that she's our enemy." Cyborg went on. "But in a way…what truly defines an enemy? She's never tried to kill us, and her aims and goals pale to nothing compare to what the like of the Lord and the Sorceress have attempted and done. Still, she is wanted, and she has engaged us in combat more then a few times. Even if I feel this way, there is my team to consider. And I must also consider that Romeo and Juliet had far from a happy ending…"

A loud knocking sounded on the door. Victor jumped in his seat.

"Victor?" Came Noel's muffled voice through the door. "You in there?"

"Uh, yeah!" Victor said, suddenly feeling guilty, as he opened a drawer and slipped the photo in and then saved and closed the file he had been working on before he got up and answered the door. "What's up Noel?"

"Small team issue." Noel said, and described what Gar and Tara had done.

"Aw man, they broke the Treadmill? That could take me weeks to fix!"

"I know, hence I feel they need some discipline. But they're bellyaching about it per usual, so I was wondering if you could go over there and back me up so we can quickly decide on a punishment."

"You're not gonna make them crack rocks or something are you?" Cyborg asked.

"No! But some kind of punishment is…"

"Yeah yeah, just messin' with ya Noel. Can I quickly finish the file I was working on?"

"Yeah, sure." Noel said, as he followed Victor into his room. Victor felt a sudden nervousness, perhaps at the possibility that Noel wanted more then his presence, that he knew how Victor felt and he felt a confrontation was necessary…but Noel immediately wandered over to Victor's workbench and began examining the various half built and disassembled devices and trinkets Victory had there. Victor quietly sighed in relief and sat down, calling the file back up. Realizing he had treated the end of his personal file more like a diary then a record, Victor erased the last several lines and finished instead by a simple "Despite these things, I remain dedicated to the cause, for my life has taught me that it, more then anything, never changes." Then he decided that was too corny and was about to erase it when Noel made a noise of surprise.

"Well well, what have we here?" Noel said, as he picked up a metal tube that had a shape even he recognized. Cyborg couldn't help but smirk.

"I'd been wanting to built one of those since I was four, but the tech only recently caught up." Victor said, as Noel pressed the button on the handle and a silvery beam of light sprang from it. It did not have the traditional sound effect, but there was no mistaking what it was.

"Heh. A ligh…"

"Quiet! You want to get sued?" Victor asked, as he jokingly looked around in fear.

"Heh, fine, a LASER SWORD." Noel said, as he swung it around a bit and found that it didn't make the classic sound effect, to his disappointment. "Finished yet?"

"Not yet. At the moment all I've got is the hard light construct factor. Like the Green Lantern's Power Rings. It's essentially a fancy bludgeon at the moment. I'm contemplating not adding a heat or cutting factor actually. Might make it easier to wield. Or I might make it optional."

"That would probably be best. I don't want Rob getting his hands on this and Anakining himself…though I wonder…"

"Put it down." Victor said. Noel chuckled and turned the laser sword prototype off, placing it back down.

"Ok, I'm done…but it will still take me a bit to fully close down the computer Noel…"

"Here, I'll do it. You go back up my decree." Noel said, as he walked over to Cyborg's computer.

"You know what you're doing?"

"Even if I didn't, all the sensitive data is protected by passwords and other security systems, I'll assume." Noel said.

"You assume right. Ok, see you there Noel."

"Gotcha." Noel said, as he began closing down the program for Cyborg. It looked like Victor had been updating the personal files and realized it was probably due to do the same with some of their villains. Noel called them up and spent a few minutes adding a sentence here and a bit of new info there.

It probably wasn't a surprise that he stumbled across the file on Mick Dobbins, and even though Noel knew it wouldn't do him any good, he found himself calling it up. Mick Dobbins' face stared out at him, rock star looks marred by weak eyes that constantly showed whatever extreme emotion Mick was running through his head. It was terrible: with looks and money like the kind Mick possessed women would have been throwing himself at him, but whatever cruel quirk of genetics or fate had made him had made it so the only thing that did it for him was women under the age of ten. Against their will. Some pedophiles could be more pitied then hated, a slave of their sickness, but Mick got off on more then that: he loved the violation aspect as well. That, combined with his utter self-righteousness…Noel sometimes wondered if handing Mick over the cops with solid evidence might be a death sentence. And part of him wondered if it was wrong that he didn't really care…

Noel realized he had zoned out, for how long he didn't know. He closed Mick's file and began shutting down Cyborg's computer, which took several more minutes. They'd have probably been waiting for him for a bit now. Noel hoped that group boredom (not the hardest thing to produce) hadn't set in and caused them to let go of Gar and Tara. He didn't want to go chasing them down.

No, he hoped his delay hadn't made them wander off.

* * *

They hadn't wandered off. 

Instead they'd done something worse.

At least by Noel's standards.

"Ah, the wounded party has finally arrived. All rise for the honorable Victor Stone!" Rob said.

Noel stared as he realized the main room had been reorganized so that two tables had been placed in front of an heightened desk and chair, at which sat Cyborg…dressed in the black robes of a judge, complete with the puffy white wig that old styles judges war. Noel blinked.

"What's going…"

"Ah, I shall speak for my client, your honor." Nigel said as he suddenly appeared next to Noel, lightly grabbing his arm and dragging the teen along, grinning like he was having a grand time.

"What do you mean your client?" Noel said.

"I'm representing you!"

"For what?"

"Your honor…" Rob said, as he stood up at the other table, at which Gar and Tara were sitting. "I will hereby prove, without a doubt, that this woman, Tara Markov, BETRAYED THE TITANS ON EARTH PRIME…"

"ROB! YOU'RE THE DEFENSE!" Tara yelled.

"What? I am?"

"YES!"

"…Nuts." Rob said, as he turned to a large purple bird that was perched on a…perch. "Avenger, looks like we have some work to do."

"What is going on? What is this nonsense?" Noel asked.

"Mr. Hastings, please keep your client in line." Victor said, having fully adapted into the role, and Noel finally realized they had decided to turn his punishment into a farce. Part of him wasn't surprised, and the other part wasn't happy.

"What in the hell! This is not an issue where guilt can be decided!"

"Quiet you, or I'll hold you in contempt of court!" Victor said.

"You don't have a court! You're not a judge!"

"Well the clothes make the man." Victor said. "I even have a hammer."

"That…"

"Order!" Victor said, more to actually do it then cut Noel off. "Order! Order!"

Noel's face turned a strange color of red.

"UH oh." Gar said.

When Noel's rant finally ended nearly a minute later, more for Noel's desperate need for oxygen then any desire to stop, all the Titans came down from their recoiled position.

"Court reporter, read that back." Victor said, glancing at Sophie, who was indeed sitting and typing at a typewriter.

"Um…'Why in the bad word can't we have a bad word bad word simple task without bad word providing more bad word with the bad word bad word bad word bad word bad word bad word bad word…I kind of lost track at this point, I think he then threatened to pull a scale model of the Eiffel Tower out of his kneecap…"

"I give up…" Noel groaned, having sat down by now. He put his feet up on the desk and leaned back, wondering if his naturally white hair was hiding the gray hairs such incidents like these were surely giving him.

"Your honor, my client has been grievously injured by these two, and we demand a large cash settlement…" Nigel began.

"This is not a tort case!" Noel said.

"Oh really? Then what's this?" Nigel said, as he produced a box that he opened to reveal it was full of pastries.

"You idiot! That's a TART case, not a tort!"

"Order! Counselor, control your client!" Victor said.

"Gar, why don't you turn into a certain Australian mammal and hop around just to really drive the point home what kind of court this is…" Noel muttered.

"Order! Both counsels, approach the bench!" Victor said, and Nigel and Rob went up to speak to him.

"Uh…just so you know Noel, this wasn't my idea." Tara said.

"Just do YOU know, I tend to be lacking in mercy when I'm seriously irritated." Noel replied, and buried his face in his hands.

"Both counsels have agreed to put a leash on their clients." Victor said, as Nigel and Rob headed back to their tables. Noel was still muttering into his hands when he felt Nigel's sharp claws graze his neck, and he removed them to look at Nigel leaning over him.

"AH!" Noel yelled, as he jerked back and actually fell over the chair in surprise.

"Objection!" Rob yelled.

"Sustained!…Wait, objection to what?" Victor asked.

"Dunno, just practicing."

"What are you doing Nigel?" Noel asked as he got up.

"I am doing as the judge ordered and putting a leash on you." Nigel said as he held up a dog collar.

"HE DIDN'T MEAN THAT LITERALLY!"

"He didn't? My, your law system is very strange, by now on Blactrininia the execution would already be underway…"

"YOUR HONOR…" Rob said as he stood up. "I am here to prove that the law that seeks to punish my clients is unjust and unconstitutional! It should not be illegal for my clients to dance, because there is no hard proof linking rock and roll to drugs and deviant sexuality…"

"THIS ISN'T ABOUT THE DANCING! THIS IS ABOUT HOW THEY BROKE THE COSMIC TREADMILL WITH SAID DANCING!"

"Order!"

"I'll have a pepperoni pizza, JUDGE." Noel snarked.

"That is it. Bailiff, please put Mr. Hastings' client in custody." Victor said.

Nothing happened.

"Bailiff!"

"Yes your honor!" Sophie said as she stumbled out from behind a screen, hastily dressed in a bailiff uniform. She walked up to Noel.

He gave her his best Batman glare.

Sophie hurriedly scurried away from Noel.

"Not removing the wounded party on the basis that the wounded party is really really mean, your honor." Sophie said.

"Your honor, I wish to resign as counsel due to the fact that my client was really mean to my girlfriend!" Nigel yelled.

"You don't get to resign, you're fired." Noel muttered.

"Ok then! Pay me!"

"What?"

"You owe me for 5 minutes of service! That's $50!"

"That contract was created out of thin air by you and not honored by me, therefore I owe you two things: Jack, and shit."

"Your honor, I wish to sue my client for my wages!"

"Overruled. This is not a tort courtroom."

"D'OH!"

"Your honor, this shows that it is a LACK of fun that leads to deviant behavior, not a…" Rob began.

"This isn't about the dancing!" Noel yelled.

"Really?" Rob replied. "It's ok to dance?"

"Yes! This is about how they broke the Cosmic Treadmill!"

"…AVENGER! You have failed me again!" Rob said, as he turned to the perch, only to find it empty as the bird headed out the nearest window. "THAT'S RIGHT! You GO back to your precious Harvey Birdman! See how far that takes you!"

"Your honor, I wish to announce my intent to defect to the defense team." Nigel said as he headed over to Gar and Tara's table.

"Granted." Victor said.

"Objection your honor." Noel said.

"Overruled."

"On what grounds?"

"That I'm the judge! See, I have a hammer!" Victor said. Nigel, meanwhile, had realized that the defense table didn't have an extra chair and was looking for one.

"Your honor, to begin the case, I must say that opposing counsel has absolutely NO evidence against my clients…" Rob said.

"Computer, call up security camera B-14, footage from…11:12 to 11:14, play back on computer with maximum sound!" Noel said.

The computer screen, which was right next to the mock trial room, activated and pulled up the security footage, which showed Gar and Tara finding the radio, starting to dance, and what happened, in full color.

"Your honor, the prosecution rests. I rule for an immediate verdict and decided upon punishment." Noel said.

"Hold it!" Rob said: Nigel was still looking for a chair. "There is no proof that that footage is real! It could be…faked!"

"I put together faked footage within two seconds to frame Gar and Tara." Noel said.

"Objection!" Rob said.

"To what?"

"To attempting to expose my cock and bull story for what it is!"

"Your honor, I move for a mistrial on the basis that my counsel is incompetent." Gar said.

"I move that he stay your counsel to teach you the folly of making a joke out of a simple mattering and greatly aggravating me in the process."

"I move that Noel moves out of his chair and gives it to me!" Nigel said.

"I move that Nigel can go fly a kite."

"That's it, I move for anarchy. All in favor, say aye. All opposed can kiss my ass!" Rob said.

"Ok, ENOUGH. Can we PLEASE decide on a punishment?" Noel asked.

"I move that this is punishment enough." Nigel said.

"Overruled!" Noel yelled.

"Hey, do you have the hammer here? Do you?" Cyborg said.

"Your honor, Tara had struck a plea bargain. In exchange for dirt on Gar, she requests a reduced sentence." Rob said.

"I move that charges be laid against defense counsel for terrible puns." Noel replied.

"Pun?" Nigel asked.

"For DIRT on Gar…" Noel replied.

"…I don't get it." Nigel said.

"Neither do I." Rob echoed. Noel facevaulted.

"Your honor, I move for original opposing council to be expelled from even PRETENDING to be a lawyer for not being able to understand such a wordplay!"

"Wait, are you talking about the literal and non-literal meanings of dirt, as in soil, and incriminating info? Not much of a pun Noel. I move that he be disbarred for bringing up such a lousy pun."

"You don't get that TERRA, the GEOKINETIC, is providing DIRT…" Noel said with exaggerated slowness.

"Yeesh, you're such a pervert!" Rob said.

"Argh, your honor, I move that we add charges of slander to original defending counsel!"

"I move that we stop moving. Always to the future, this trial looks. Never thinking about where it was, what it was doing…"

"ARGH! THAT'S IT! I have had enough! I am hereby invoking my veto ability to veto Cyborg's co-leader position for this decision so I can decide the punishment myself!"

"Ah, but then he can use HIS veto ability to disapprove of YOUR veto." Rob pointed out.

A vein was now throbbing dangerously in Noel's forehead.

"Very WELL, then I am relieving him of his command and using my veto ability to veto anyone who attempts to do the same to me!"

"This isn't fun any more. I'ma go play video games." Rob said, as he got up and started to leave.

"Get back here Rob. We still have to decide on a punishment."

"No, because you just invoked your ability to decide the punishment. No one else needs to be here. And before you command me as my supposed leader, I will point out that since we are not in combat your leadership position is largely ceremonial, so…I'ma go playing video games."

"Shall I put you down as abstaining then?"

"Put me down as whatever you want, because you just seized the crown of Rome, Caesar." Rob said.

Noel sighed deeply. Without even being aware of it, he'd slipped right back into the old role: the hardass, the buzzkiller, the one who had to take everything seriously because that was the only way he could live with himself. And he'd promised himself that he'd at least TRY to avoid that, but it was just so tricky…

"Oh god. You'd think I'd asked them to vote on an execution." Noel said.

"Um…if it's a minor punishment, what was the point of this trial?" Tara asked.

Wrong choice of words, as the fact that Noel's simple vote had been jettisoned for silliness and then had been forgotten as silliness wound him up again.

"ARGH! THERE WAS NO POINT! YOU PEOPLE STARTED IT ALL WHEN ALL WE HAD TO DO WAS TAKE A SIMPLE VOTE!" Noel yelled. "Ok, that's it, if I am alone in making this decision, then I rule that for breaking the treadmill, and all this needless running around, Gar and Tara have to run around the island five times with no powers! I have spoken! Now bang the gavel and make it official!" Noel yelled.

"Hail, Caesar!" Victor said, as he raised his gavel.

And then the alarm went off, blaring through the room.

"………………..NO! I AM NOT HAVING GONE THROUGH ALL THAT FOR….FOR…ARGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Noel screamed, sounding a great deal like Charlie Brown. But Noel was a professional, as he quickly began boxing his emotions up as he switched to business.

"Cyborg, we have trouble! All this nonsense, forget it! Orders?"

"You issue 'em!" Cyborg said as he struggled to get out of the judge robes.

"Understood! Cyborg, warm up the T-Car! Beast Boy, Terra, punishment is nullified for now, go get dressed for combat! Gauntlet, Scalpel, go get extra medical supplies and gear in case it's someone new so we can get a good look at them! Sophie…go do some of Nigel's paperwork! I'm going to verify the location and try to come down from my close case of having a stroke!" Noel said, as he whirled and ran over to the computer, rapidly typing at it as various Titans ran around behind him and eventually cleared out leaving Noel alone in the room. It took Noel fifteen seconds to pin down the alarm.

"Jump City 1st National Bank?" Noel said incredulously. "…Who the hell robs the main bank of a city protected by superheroes any more? Don't they realize that'll bring us down on their heads like…argh! Are these criminals getting dumber, more arrogant, or just too lazy to use a phone book?" Noel muttered as he checked to make sure he wasn't being sent a false feed. Deciding that it was genuine, Noel muttered once more about criminal stupidity and turned to head out of the room.

A beeping caught his attention. Incoming message. Email type, which only took a few seconds to scan as Noel called it up, just in case it had to do with the situation.

" 'Dear Bitty. Got a call from Boy Wonder. Will help you with Dobbins case as best I can. Also, Cassandra may be dropping in on your city. Sincerely, Oracle.'" Noel read out loud. "Grrrrr. 'Dear BABS, STOP CALLING ME BITTY. It's not becoming. Also thank you. But stop calling me Bitty. Sincerely, Savior.'" Noel thought out loud as he typed the same as a response. "Computer, go into standby and defensive mode, usual triggers for re-awakening, arm all defenses upon 30 seconds of Titans leaving the Tower! Time to do what we do best." Noel said he headed out into the room.

* * *

His name was Eddie Davis. He had a job he hated and too many bills to stop doing it, plus he was late to it. Hence he wasn't very happy as he ran down the street, trying to keep from spilling his coffee or dropping his lunch, thinking small, angry thoughts. 

People never realize just how good they have life until true danger comes a-calling, and by then it's too late.

As a hand emerged from an alleyway and seized Davis, grabbing and yanking him into the alleyway with a cut off yelp which no one, all of them wrapped up in their busy lives, noticed, the only sign of his presence his fallen sandwich and spilled coffee.

And that was the least of Davis' concerns, as he found himself being pinned to the wall and looking into the blazing eyes of a literal demon. Well, maybe it was human, but the eyes sure weren't. He screamed like a baby. His bladder went a second later.

"WHERE AM I?" The Jackal roared.

"AIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!"

"SHUT UP!"

Eddie did just that, whimpering.

"What is this place?" The Jackal growled.

"Uh…"

"WHERE AM I?"

"AHHHH! JUMP CITY!" Eddie screamed.

"Jump City? Where the hell is Jump City?"

"Florida! Please, take whatever you want, just don't kill me!"

"You have nothing I need except information! What country is this?"

"The States!"

"What year is it?"

Eddie told him. The Jackal growled.

"Name some other cities!"

"Uh, New York! Miami! Detroit! San Francisco…!" Eddie blubbered.

"What about Metroville?"

"What?"

"METROVILLE!"

"I don't know any Metroville! Do you mean Metropolis?"

"No!" Jackal yelled, and rattled off several other cities. Only two came back as matches: the others the man had no idea what he was talking about. And the Jackal knew he was far too scared to lie.

"Hmmmmmpphhh…what about Supers? Are there Supers?"

"Supers? You mean Superheroes?"

"Superheroes?"

"Uh, guys with special powers…"

"Yes! Name some!"

"Uh, Superman!"

"He named himself after the type? How arrogant."

"Batman!"

"What?"

"The Teen Titans!"

"What kind of a stupid name is that?"

"Justice League!"

"Do they have no subtlety?"

"Captain Marvel!"

"Not very creative are they…" Jackal said as the reality of just what had befallen him began to sink in, and he didn't much like it. "What about the Incredibles?"

"Who?"

"A team or family called the Incredibles!"

"I never heard of them!"

"What about a villain called Syndrome?"

"No!"

"Name some villains!"

"Uh, the Joker! The Lord of the Night! Darkseid! Gorilla Grodd! Uh, Whim! The Sorceress!"

The Jackal tossed the man aside.

"How strange…" The Jackal says. "Just when I think I have the game won…they change all the rules…"

"Ahhhhh…don't kill me…" Eddie wept.

"Why kill you? You helped me. I suppose that deserves something." The Jackal said, as he lifted one foot and slipped his boot off. The color mottled and turned a dull yellow, and the Jackal tossed the boot at the man's feet.

"There. Solid gold. How you carry it away and turn it into money is a problem for you to solve. Good day." The Jackal said, as he turned and walked away, his now bare foot sticking to the ground a few times as he walked, and if Eddie had been paying attention to him, he might have noticed that each step left an impression in the ground, as if the Jackal was walking on mud. Except he was walking on solid stone, and there was no indication where the material that had once been in the gap had gone. Except we know, as the Jackal finished making his new boot and altered his feet and density as he stepped up against the wall and began walking up it like another famous superhero, albeit one that wasn't in this universe.

"My device does not place me where I want it to; instead I find myself here, a world where no one has heard of many familiar things, yet still possesses places and objects I find familiar…including people with special powers…but…how did I get here? And just…where is here?"

The Jackal came to the actual roof and walked across it, staring at the city around him. It looked fairly nice, not that that mattered to him. Only two things mattered to him, and after years of planning to get one, it had slipped out of his grasp and disappeared entirely.

The Jackal looked at Jump City, and wondered if he had to start all over again. And if that mattered. Even if this strange new place caused him to take ten times longer then it had the first time, what did that matter? He had all the time in the world…

A familiar noise caught his ear. Sirens. Were the police coming for him? Many had tried. They had all learned that such a task was a very bad thing to do…

But they weren't coming for him. They were driving past on the street below him, heading off to some other destination, some other crisis.

His eyes followed them.

Not where he wanted to be…

Best started getting there again…

"Hmmmmmmmmmm." The Jackal said.

And then he started to follow them.

_To Be Continued_


	5. A Case of the HIVE's

Chapter 4: A Case of the H.I.V.E's

Writer's Note: Co-written with the author Jedi-And.

The police cars that had passed the Jackal were more a symbolic gesture then anything. Much like Metroville, the Jump City Police Department had long ago come to an understanding that there were some things that would be far more beneficial for them to stay out of. Hence, the cars were more to assign a perimeter, get people out of the line of fire, and keep out rubberneckers then to actually apprehend anyone. True, there were times when the police helped the Titans, and the Titans made sure they gave plenty of credit to the normal men and women who protected Jump City from the smaller but no less important crimes. In any case, the police knew their jobs, and they went about them.

At Jump City 1st National Bank, it was pretty much the usual for them as well. One could ask why banks in Jump City bothered hiring security at all, but the truth was not every robbery attempt required the Teen Titans' aid. Being the biggest target, the 1st National had strong security and better then usual guards (no fat donut eaters here). But in this case it hadn't mattered: the only thing that had alerted the outside world to trouble was the silent alarm that had been triggered as three teenagers waltzed their way through the building, walking past unconscious guards, cashiers, and customers. There was no sign of a struggle though: the cataleptic state that had claimed all the humans within the bank had not been caused by blows but by what appeared to be some kind of pollen. What made the scene even stranger was there were several holes in the ground that led into tunnels in the dirt below the bank. You almost expected to see Bugs Bunny robbing the place.

The human element dealt with, the three teenagers found they weren't on easy street yet, as they now had to deal with the non-human element.

"Any ideas on how to crack this DAMN SAFE?" A young black man asked. He stood roughly six feet tall with an athletic build, albeit one that wasn't helping him at the moment as he frantically tried to rip open the vault door in a rather comical fashion. His outfit would have been comical for those who had not seen his power, as he was quite disheveled looking. His shirt was made up of a patchwork design, pieces of clashing material sown thickly together, his left sleeve going down to the wrist while the right one stopped at mid arm, compensated by one green and yellow glove on his right hand. His trousers, as was his shirt, seemed to be a myriad of primary, secondary and metallic colors. On his left foot was a brand new training shoe like one would have in sports, and on the other was a big old clunky boot, like the kind a labor worker would have. His hair, like his outfit, was a mess of black dreads that looked like they hadn't been brushed in over three years, maybe not even washed for a few.

"Please don't get angry." A short, petite looking woman said, trying to pull him off the door. She looked normal enough, if you discounted the fact that she seemed to be made of plants. Her hair was composed of petals, going from fully bloomed flowers to just buds on the tips of her shoulder length locks. Her skin was light green and her outfit consisted of a cape made of two large, long pink flower petals that faded into white at the end, alongside a light shirt with a gold leaf motif and a skin-tight dark green leotard that went from her neck to her ankles, with a black swimsuit-like piece over the top of that but under the shirt in black that covered most of her neck. Finally, a pair of small boots that almost looked out of place with the rest of the costume, as they were somewhat bulky, completed her outfit.

"I wouldn't get so angry if it wasn't for this blasted door!" The patchwork kid yelled, banging a fist against it one last time before giving up with a huff. "Hmmmm. I do have trouble with nailed down stuff, but maybe…"

Heavy footsteps came from behind him, each one giving off a metallic clang.

"Let me have a try." Said the last of the teens, a light French accent clear in her speaking. She was a tall, beautifully sexy individual with a prize winning face, long light blonde hair and a figure that would have felt right at home on a cheerleading squad, being the classic super hero hourglass with the wasp-like waist and wide shoulders and hips. The only thing that marred the 'reflection of perfection' on this six foot high Amazon was the fact her skin was a near-white silver which shone in the sun like a highly polished surface. She wore a pastel pink dress that went from her overdeveloped chest down to the high thigh region, the look complimented by the knee high boots that she wore.

She walked to the seam in the door, stared at the small gap for a moment, and then pulled back her arm, the muscles going from lightly toned to well defined in one tense movement, before her clenched fist shot forward and smashed into the gap. Unlike a human fist, which would have broken on contact, the vault door gave instead, as the edge buckled inward a bit to create a gap, a loud metallic clang echoing through the bank. It seemed her skin wasn't as soft as it looked: it may have reflected light like rigid metal but it still looked and acted like skin: there were no apparent holes or gaps that would expose it for a suit or covering of some kind. Indeed, the metal didn't seem to affect her flexibility at all, as she placed her two delicate hands in the hole, and now with leverage she dug her fingers into the metal and strained backwards. A horrible metallic shriek filled the bank as she yanked the door open, and then just to drive the point home, she grabbed the edge of the door and ripped it straight off its hinges.

The room was silent.

"Was that really necessary?" The small plant like woman asked. The blonde just shrugged and flicked out her long hair.

"I 'unno." She replied, dropping the large steel/titanium door which probably weighed at least several tons like it was a cardboard box, before she turned to the now open door. Her eyes widened, a look of pure amazement covering her features, as inside the vault was more money than she could have ever imagined. Ideas of what she could do with it filled her head: she could get so many new things, including possibly a better costume. She clasped her hands together, making a metallic clang. "_Tres magnific_."

"CHA-CHING!" The black teen shouted as he dashed into the vault and began opening all the boxes, security deposit boxes, and doors.

"WOW!" The small woman exclaimed, as she followed the black teen in, as the metal amazon also, almost skipping, made her way into the vault, with a wide smile and a heavy metallic cacophony, mostly caused by the sound echoing around the small enclosed space inside the vault. Indeed, it was so loud it made the black male teen pause in his looting.

"Ow!" He said, clutching at his ears. "Hey! Heavy! Quit it with the noise or you'll have half the JLA down here because they can hear it from their Watchtower!" He bellowed.

"Actually, they can't hear her because they are in space, and sound doesn't travel in space because there's no air…" The small one stated, but her reasoning was clearly not getting through, only the original comment was, if the look of hurt on the face of the silver woman was any indication, as she turned, hands on hips.

"Are you calling me fat? _Hybride!_" She snapped, as she walked over and got right up into the black teen's face, or right up over his face as she was at least three inches taller than him. "_Appelez-moi graisse encore! Je vous ferai..."_

"Yes! No! Um…damn! Just quit it and grab the loot!" He yelled back, and the French speaking metal girl decided that was a good point, as the group once again started to grab the money, doing this for twenty seconds before they decided that they'd tempted fate enough and it was time to go. However, they allowed themselves the indulgence of shouting out "YAHOO!" as they threw a whole load of thousand dollar bills up into the air and danced in them like they were rain.

"Oh if only I had my umbrella!" The silver woman said, before she lifted up several of the heavy bags now filled with her ill gotten booty, or as Alan Alder aka Hawkeye Pierce said in a MASH episode, ill booten gotty.

"This way please, sir and madam." The smaller one stated as they all turned to leave through the hole where a vault door had once stood "Our transportation will be ready momentarily."

The small girl smiled and turned…

A lashing white energy whip snapped down on the floor next to her, making her jump back with a yelp.

"Your train has been cancelled." Savior said, calling his tendril back to him as his teammates spread out around him, Cyborg at his side. When he'd heard there had been three perpetrators, he'd been expecting a different group, and instead he and his team found themselves fully armed and fully prepared…and against three different teenagers. Indeed, they'd been so busy quickly and silently removing all the unconscious people inside the bank that they hadn't even realized that the voices coming from the vault didn't match up with what they had expected.

"Looks like we have some new kids on the block!" Beast Boy said as he looked the three up and down a little.

"Let's make their careers even shorter then that group." Cyborg replied.

There was a slight pause as the three bank robbers backed up a little and the Titans moved forward. The air seemed to still around them.

They stood there, silent.

"Psst, this is your cue to introduce yourself." Gauntlet said.

"Oh. Right." The metallic woman nodded before coughing. "Uh…um…Jules?"

The black teen took that as a cue.

"So, the Teen Titans. Well, you may be the Titans, but I say you have never had to face a force like us before!" Their messy haired leader shouted, pointing upwards. "We are the latest, greatest villains to come out of the HIVE academy since the Troika!" He posed with his hands both open. "Juryrig!"

"Platinum Blonde!" The silver faced blonde shouted, her arms holding up the moneybags.

"Floral." The green woman in the leotard said in a more quiet tone, holding up a small flower as the pose finished and a load of petals exploded behind the three.

"AND WE ARE…"

A sonic cannon blast caught Platinum Blonde in her ample chest and sent her flying backwards even as a lashing Shimmer strand caught both Floral and Juryrig and sent them right after her, the group crashing into a pile of moneybags at the back of the vault and sending an explosion of bills through the air.

"Stupid enough to stand still and make a big scene while expecting us to do the same." Savior said.

"Hey! I wanted to hear their name! It's a tradition!" Gauntlet protested.

"Tradition bites." Savior replied.

"I'll tell you our name!" Juryrig yelled as he tried to get up. "It's…uh…uh….UH…um…"

And then Juryrig stepped on some loose money: that combined with the angle caused his foot to slip and for him to fall down again, bumping into Floral and knocking the small girl down as well, the collapse almost pulling down Platinum Blonde as well, though she did manage to keep her feet.

"You don't actually have a name for your group do you?" Terra asked, causing the villains to look at one another for support in a state of confusion.

"We got called out in full force for this?" Cyborg asked, rubbing the robotic side of his head. "I swear, the POLICE could have dealt with these amateurs..." 

"I'll show you amateurs!" Platinum Blonde yelled as she charged, moving faster then Cyborg would have expected as she built up enough speed out of her heavy body to gut check the man-machine, forcing him back a little to the surprise of the relaxed Titans, who hadn't expected her to attack the Titans solo. They scattered as Cyborg locked his feet and stopped the charge, struggling with Platinum Blonde.

"I think we found their tanker!" Gauntlet shouted as the Titans quickly surrounded the struggle. For those who don't know, a Tanker was a term for someone who had the strength and defense to run into the middle of any and all kinds of fights and hold their own; usually it would be the big, strong person on the group. Cyborg was the tanker for the Titans, as his armor plating offered the protection he needed to come out on top. Indeed, most teams needed a tanker to help even things out a little and to act as a shield for long ranged heroes who had weaker defenses or close combat heroes who couldn't take hits well…but getting back to the action.

"Gauntlet, Scalpel, take care of stupid rookie." Savior ordered, pointing at the still struggling Cyborg and Platinum Blonde. "Beast Boy, Terra, let's deal with the smarter rookies."

"Let's wrap this up and go get some pizza!" Gauntlet said to Scalpel, who nodded and snapped out his glaive.

And at that point a whole load of micro missiles came shooting at the jokester of the Titans, forcing him to throw up his Gauntlet shield at the last moment, though the shockwave caused the others to stop Savior's ordered attack in surprise.

"Hey snot buckets! Aren't we forgetting something?" A short kid with a very annoying voice called from the door. "In the HIVE we work as a team!"

"And if you mess with some of us..." A lady's voice spoke softly, before it was cut off by a deeper, harsher tone.

"You mess with a lot more than you bargained for! So let the newbies go!" Said the final, gruff voice, and then a loud sound of cracking knuckles filled the air as the Titans turned and looked at the door.

"Troika as backup. My my, an actual sign of tactical thinking. Then again, I suppose miracles do happen." Savior said.

"I was wondering when the real fight was going to start." Scalpel replied, lifting up his glaive. "New orders?"

"Chew bubble gum and kick ass."

"I don't have any bubble gum."

"Exactly." Savior said, as he snapped out the Shimmer as the two charged into battle. The Troika took after their example and charged as well.

"LET'S GET READY TO RRUUUUUMMMBBBLLLEEEEE!" Gauntlet shouted as the groups collided, the Troika slamming into the Titans even as the new HIVE members finally got to their feet and charged into the fray.

Utter carnage followed, as tables, desks, chairs, stair banisters and mortgage advertisements became casualties from the events that swiftly spiraled down into a bloody free for all. It was a manic battle, as the bank wasn't exactly built to accommodate a fight with twelve super-powered people, especially considering the size of some of the combatants, and within a minute it had spilled out onto the street, the whole right side of the bank exploding as Mammoth was thrown out, swiftly followed by Scalpel as he dove out of the bank at the colossus, tackling him down to the ground. Mammoth wasn't TOO stupid however: in close with all his sharp parts Scalpel had a distinctive advantage, and he swiftly lifted the alien up and threw up high into the air and away from him, causing the alien to come crashing down hard upon the roof of a nearby car, losing his glaive in the process.

Scalpel growled and rolled off the car and onto his feet, as he reached down and picked up the vehicle, hoisting it above his head, as he aimed and 'fired' the automobile at Mammoth, who was showing the reason he was only not TOO stupid as he was just walking away thinking he had gotten rid of the alien.

"Hey!" Scalpel shouted, and like most villains, Mammoth turned around. Why? I don't know. It's a villain thing I guess, and as soon as Mammoth followed the rule he received a car straight into his face, sending him once again flying into the side of the bank stairs before he stopped, the car (still with him due to the momentum) falling onto his large form.

"We are not finished yet!" Scalpel shouted as he jumped through the air and onto the car, once again buckling the thin piece of metal that was the roof as he tried to stomp Mammoth into the ground. With a roar, Mammoth used his strength to flip the car up onto its back, Scalpel along for the ride as he slammed into the ground, the car on top of him. Mammoth smirked and lifted the car up to slam it down upon the alien again…before Scalpel lashed out with his hand and grabbed the giant's ankle, yanking his leg up and throwing Mammoth up into the air with the greatest of ease before he spun up, and, while balancing on his hands, thrust out a leg into Mammoth's back and kicked him into and through one of the bank's outside pillars. However, throwing Mammoth like this made the giant lose his grip on the car, and as Scalpel did a final spin and placed his feet on the ground, it fell upon the doctor…

Who buckled under it, and then stopped and slowly stood up with it, the car balanced on his back as if he and his larger adversary were playing a dangerous game of hot potato but with a diesel engine.

Inside however was no less frantic: hell it was probably more so as reducing the combatants inside the bank from 12 to 10 hadn't really done much in the way of alleviating the chaos.

Metallic ringing bangs sounded through part of the room, as Platinum Blonde was having what could only be described as a fistfight of the gods with Cyborg, who wasn't doing as well as he would have liked. They were both made of metal, but Cyborg's was in a locked, inflexible state, while Platinum's Blonde was more fluid ala the T-1000, hence Cyborg couldn't really tell if his blows were doing any real damage while the dents that had appeared on his chest and arms told a different story to his foe. And she was faster then him, as she ducked under a right hook and slammed her fist into his gut, and while Cyborg couldn't really have his wind knocked out of him like a human the force was still enough to double him over onto Platinum Blonde's shoulder, as the girl, with a wicked laugh, shifted her weight as she grabbed Cyborg and then hurled him up to the first floor of the bank, which had been designed as an open plan and hence looked down on the ground floor via a balcony. Flexing her legs, she leapt up after him…and made a mistake as she forget how much she weighed. Because of said weight, the already damaged by Cyborg's landing on them floorboards gave way when the metallic woman landed on them as well, causing them to tumble back down to the ground floor and putting some distance between them, which allowed Cyborg to call out his advantage, his weapons, tipping the battle over to him.

You would think the others might have gone to help tip the balance of this battle of the tankers to their favor, but they were busy with their own fights, as Beast Boy, alongside Terra, had surrounded the poor small teenager called Floral, who had backed herself into a corner out of fear. It was, after all, her first mission, and she was still a little nervous, her mind a jumble.

"FLORAL! PLAN A!" Juryrig shouted to her. Despite her nervousness, her mind instantly seized onto the words, and she held out her un-gloved hands as they started to call to the earth. The ground began to shake beneath the Titans…

Which didn't seem to impress Beast Boy and Terra much. Indeed, Terra just tutted in an blasé manner, extending one of her own hands as her eyes glowed yellow.

"Ground manipulation powers? That's all fine and good child, but please. I am a master Geokinetic. When it comes to controlling the earth, anything you can do I can do better. To sum it up, you won't beat me." Terra said in a cocky tone, as she called to the earth to stop shaking.

To put what response she got in layman's terms, the earth basically said back in a confused tone "I am not doing anything."

"Terra?" Beast Boy said, as a look of shock came over her face, as she finally put the earth's response and the girl's name together, as the ground continued to shake…

"I-I don't control the earth; I control the force that causes the earth to tremble!"

Vines shot from the floor and lashed around, vicious green whips as nasty as any human constructed weapon. Beast Boy changed into a hawk and flew above the thin plants, trying to get high enough to avoid contact, but unfortunately they were faster as they managed to catch and wrap around him before throwing him to the floor. Terra, caught off guard by her arrogance, did the first thing that came to mind as she threw up a shield of stone from the floor and dirt from underneath it around her to protect her until she could think…another bad move, considering her foe, and Floral noticed this. She commanded her plants to act, and the vine shifted and changed, coiling around themselves as they changed from thin whip lengths to something more like tentacles, leaping out and entangling themselves in and around Terra's shield as they started to crush it. Grunting, Terra raised her hands and tried to force the rock cocoon outwards in the hopes it would hold, but it didn't work, as it continued to close around her, liana after liana, a certain type of vine, continuing to emerge and warp around the rock.

Floral looked upon her work, her confidence seemingly starting to emerge, to the point where she even managed a small laugh.

"Y-you see? Plants cause the rocks to fall apart! To corrode and break!" She taunted. She was still backing up though: her outward appearance of fearlessness betrayed by her unconscious actions, as she was still rather scared of what was happening…

And that in turn screwed her up just like it had Terra, as just before her plants could crush Terra inside her own little prison or swat the getting up Beast Boy, she tripped over something and every plant in the room broke away from her attack and shot over to her to catch her fall, which they did, just barely.

Terra quickly shattered the rock sphere that had nearly been her tomb and fired the shards of stone off towards Floral, who quickly aped her move and put up a plant shield on which the rocks broke against. However, unlike Terra's stalwart guard, this move seemed to make the plants screech in pain.

"I'm so sorry!" Floral said, getting up as she appeared to try to rub the plant to make it feel better. "After we've done this we can go back home, and rest, you'll see." Yep, she was definitely talking to the plants.

"They can't hear you, ya know." Beast Boy commented in between transformations.

Wrong thing to say, as Floral's soft, scared gaze did a complete 180 and turned into a visage of pure anger aimed at the geokinetic and the changeling.

"What would you know? You're just an animal! A creature that hurts things! Part of the earth who just tries to harm plants by not giving them the nutrients they need!"

"What? Hurt? Dude, uh, dette, I'm a vegetarian!" Beast Boy protested, breaking out his usual line of why he wouldn't harm certain things.

The problem was, she wasn't talking about people but plants. In other words, he'd just said the MOTHER of all wrong things to say.

"MURDERER!" Floral bellowed, as her plants reared back and fired out at such speed the two teens couldn't mount a defense, the thick green tentacles slamming into the pair. "You sick, twisted man!" She shouted, more wall climbing based plants shooting from the ground to attack the two.

"You're calling him sick?" Terra asked/gasped incredulously, trying to get free and not succeeded as the plants lashed out and pinned her to a wall.

"Yes! I call him what he is, because all he ever does is try to harm plants! Plants are something we all need! But he claims he has a better code of ethics because he doesn't eat animals, when all they do is harm us!"

"Us?" Beast Boy said disbelievingly.

"Yes! You're all out to destroy us! But we won't let you! We will destroy you first! All my brothers and sisters will rip this planet apart!" Floral shrieked, the mild mannered young villain having seemingly been replaced, her voice usurped by something much older, much darker, much more vengeful. The spirit of the flowers speaking in her head seemed to only strengthen her resolve and belief that humans were not the kind animals she thought they once were.

"Well at least she hasn't complained about cutting down the rainforest yet." Beast Boy said, ever the jokester.

"Trees deserve all they get! They are conscious of your deeds and they are happy! HAPPY! They know you cut them down but they think you need them! They refuse to believe that you humans cut them down for fun sometimes!" Floral yelled.

"Ok kid, can you please say something that actually MAKES SENSE?" Terra asked.

"SILENCE!" Floral screamed, and she threw the young pair away, the two crashing through some cashier screens in a shower of safety glass.

Some of which bounced by Savior as he made his way through the bank, seemingly aloof but in reality completely aware of where his team was and what they were doing. Knowing that, Savior had carefully kept out of the way as he tried to decide what tactic to use. It seemed the Titans had all broken off into their own little fights, and none of them were losing badly, so that left one thing, and one person, for Noel to deal with: the leader of this new group, who seemed to be just standing there and laughing at all the destruction. Savior knew a cover when he saw one though: Juryrig was doing exactly what Savior was doing: assessing the situation and looking for where his aid was needed. Well, Savior would deal with that, as he rolled under a flying piece of stone debris as Terra counter-attacked the still mad Floral and sprang into a small leap that put him before Juryrig, whose eyes immediately snapped to him.

"So…Juryrig, is it?" Savior as, as the Shimmer coiled out of his hands, ready for any commands. "So…what can you do? Somehow I doubt it has anything to do with the outcome of trials."

"Oh, it has more to do with trials then you think…" Juryrig said as he raised his arms. As for why Savior didn't attack him then, well, he might have felt comfortable hitting the teen villain when he was posing, but he was clearly kicking in his power, and since Savior had no idea what it was he wasn't going to go attacking Juryrig and get a face full of acidic smoke or something. True, names tended to tie into powers, but if the teen was smart enough to observe a battle he might be smart enough to purposely take a misleading nom de plume.

"But rather a trial by fire then a trial of law!" Juryrig added, and brought his hands together and then began slowly pulling them apart, his fingers trembling.

A rumbling sound was heard, but unlike before, where it came from the ground moving under the Titans' feet, there was no discernible origin for his sound, as Savior stood there, his body tense, his eyes darting around the room…

And still nearly getting squashed as he glanced up and to his left and saw the rubble from the destruction flying at him. Savior cursed and sprang/rolled out of the way as the rubble crashed down where he had just been. Juryrig was a telekinetic? Well, he could handle…

Wait…

Juryrig hadn't been throwing the rubble at Savior. He had been CALLING it to over to him, like a strange magnet of some kind, and it appeared that as long as it was inanimate, Juryrig could summon it, as he called the wood and stone and metal that had once been part of something or other to and before him. Now the reason he had been staying out of it became more clear: he had not just been watching his teammates, he had been, in a sense, using them: the more damage they did, the more material he had.

The pillar outside the bank that Mammoth had shattered flew through the door, smashing it up and flying past some of the fighting Titans and HIVE members before it slid over to the shape Juryrig was forming, a shape now coming into definition: a massive golem, the giant pillar becoming it's right arm, even as the vault door that Platinum Blonde had ripped off floated over and attached itself to a rock and metal right arm to become a massive hand, of sorts. Two broken lights lit up where the head was, said head made out of a desk and a few pieces of pillar, as it open it's crude mouth, pulling back in what could only be described as a silent roar.

Not a telekinetic. A puppetmaster. Savior's eyes narrowed as he looked at the creature Juryrig had formed, looking very pleased with himself as he glanced upward at it.

"You know that expression 'haste makes waste'? Well in my experience…it's…waste makes waste." Juryrig said, as he glanced up at his creation. "Hmmm, not bad at all. I think I'll call him Titanic Tommy."

"NYYYUUHHH!" Savior yelled in a wordless battle cry, as he tried to make a preemptive move, firing twin Shimmer lines at Juryrig, under the old adage "cut off the head of the snake and the body will die…"

Except this body knew that fact, as the metal vault hand slammed down in front of Juryrig, blocking the piercing bludgeon. Savior growled as he recalled the strands. He wasn't just a puppetmaster, he had damn good reflexes.

"Bad boy! Sic' em!" Juryrig yelled, pointing.

"Well damn." Savior said flatly.

The refuse golem, which Juryrig called Titanic Tommy, and hereby referred to as TT, swung out with its pillar arm. Savior threw himself backwards as the arm slammed into a wall, both the wall and the arm shattering a bit…and then reforming as the smashed bits of both returned to the mass and clung to it. Damn. Not only could Juryrig make the monsters, he could add to them in mid battle…

And they were fast, as Savior found the vault hand swinging down at him. Savior leapt to the side, the vault smashing a hole in the floor, and even as the wreckage slithered up and added itself to the TT golem's arm Savior found the pillar arm heading for him. He didn't quite dodge this time: the pillar clipped his form and knocked him down, smashing through a desk. Savior shook his head and rolled backwards as the longer ranged pillar arm tried to smash him again: all it did was reduce the wrecked desk to toothpicks as Savior leapt away. Snarling, Savior lashed out with several Shimmer strands, piecing them into the monster's body and ripping out whatever wreckage he could. The creature staggered a bit, but the wreckage Savior had tossed out swiftly returned, reinforced by new debris that had been made in the other battles. Savior's eyes snapped over to Juryrig: yes, attacking the head was definitely the way to go. However, the fact that TT immediately moved in front of him clearly showed that getting to the head would be the problem.

But Savior was good at problems, as he yelled and ran forward, swinging up several strands into a sword-shape…and then slashing the sword down early as it turned into a makeshift pole-vault as Savior tried to leapt over TT…

He met the vault hand in mid-leap, swatted out of the air like a fly. He bounced once and then flipped over, staggering as pain shot through his body.

The wreckage giant charged forward, its arms flailing and swiping. Deciding that standing his ground was counterproductive, Savior started backing up and continued to do so. However, there wasn't a lot of room in the bank to do so, and seeing that Savior was still wracking his brain to think of a successful counter attack…that wasn't good. But Savior paid that factor no mind: he'd had worse problems.

And there was also the matter that due to the aforementioned bank size, it wasn't long before Savior headed into another one of the fights.

"UGH!" Cyborg grunted as he crashed to the ground. He'd tried hitting Platinum Blonde at a distance courtesy of shooting out his arm on a grapple, but she'd grabbed it and yanked HIM into her fist instead. Mad as hell, Cyborg changed his arm to the sonic cannon and fired off a powerful blast, but Platinum Blonde just walked into it, staggering under the force beam but still resisting it enough to maintain forward momentum. Cyborg growled: apparently with her on guard she wasn't as easy to knock down, and if he upped the power on his cannon any more he'd risk overloading it, but Platinum was almost on him, a arrogant smirk on her face...

And so was a giant shadow. What the heck…

"CY! DOWN!" Savior shouted.

Cyborg obeyed without any hesitation, cutting off his sonic cannon and throwing himself to the ground. Titans listened to each other. However, Platinum wasn't a Titan and paid no heed to such a warning, which was unfortunate as Savior had called it because the TT Golem was swinging back its pillar arm for a baseball bat smash.

And Platinum became the ball, as the arm swung out and caught her, sending her flying through the front door of the bank with a scream.

Outside, Scalpel was finishing his lift of the car that he and Mammoth had been fighting over…and Platinum Blonde flew straight out through the broken door doors and into said car, forcing it out of his hands and onto the street. The car hit the ground, rolled a few times, and then skidded on its side with her stuck through its chassis and one of the windows, leaving her in a not too dignified manner.

Serves her right for that short skirt really.

Scalpel felt above his head a little, wondering where the car had gone. However, he didn't get to wonder for long as Mammoth once again slammed into him, driving him backwards and reengaging him in combat, leaving the wrecked car and the stuck Platinum Blonde behind, the girl's legs waving comically as she couldn't get the proper leverage to free herself from her plight.

"Oh no! Antoinette!" Juryrig said, turning his head to look at the hole that had been made when he had inadvertently grand slammed his teammate, and then became aware of chuckling.

"Nice one." Savior said. "With friends like you…"

The TT Golem swung its vault hand at Savior, and he once again leapt out of the way as a yelling Juryrig furiously attacked. Cyborg rolled away, saw that Savior was fine for now (probably one of his plans, Victor knew how Noel thought), and scanned the bank to see what he could do.

The remaining Titans were fighting four of the six HIVE members, as one was outside having a fistfight with an alien and the other was trying to get herself out of a car without losing what little dignity she had left. Gizmo was, as per usual, flying around with his jetpack as he fired off every micro missile he owned in the hopes he would hit that smarmy Gauntlet before he could crack any more really bad jokes. I mean, Gizmo did have some 'supposedly' immature threats, but he wasn't so cliché about his taunts as Gauntlet was. What was this kid, a walking comic book?

"Your powers are mighty! Or would be if we were in just two dimensions!" Gauntlet said as he jumped up over the missiles and his threat shouting advisory, as he quickly formed his Gauntlet energy into a rough gun shape. It seems that he had been improving his skills since the last time we saw him: perhaps he had talked to one of the Green Lanterns (and actually he had; John Stewart, whose power ring could form anything he imagined out of hard light energy, and while John, a former architect, preferred simple, concise structures, Gauntlet had begged him to teach him how to make fancier shapes then he, Gauntlet, normally could. Stewart had, for some reason known only to him: maybe he just wanted Gauntlet to stop annoying him. And while Gauntlet hadn't actually used the move yet, he figured now was as good a time as any to pull it out of the bag), as he soon started to blast Gizmo with the 'gun'. Gizmo yelled another curse with the usual 'snot' and 'crud' words in it and tried to dodge, as Gauntlet continued with his jump, firing down upon Gizmo with each blast, before landing on the other side and continuing his barrage. Although Gizmo continued to dodge his way around the blasts, his wings didn't have the same luck, and on the last few dodges he was shot out of the air and crashed to the ground with a "Cruddddd!".

"Heh. Optimus Prime, eat your heart out." Gauntlet said, and blew on his yellow energy construct.

And was then promptly buried in rubble dropped down upon him by a stray Hex blast. Jinx, rather then aiming for the Titans themselves, had decided to aim at the area around them, in effort to make the bank attack them for her, or do it in a different way then the way Juryrig was, rather. Indeed, the rookie was doing pretty well: Jinx marveled at how he had managed to gain a lot of the Titans' attention away from his other teammates. True, he was a bit too proud of his wreckage puppets, always bragging on how he never made the exact shape twice and giving each one a name and other things as he goofed around a little, but he was a good leader and the HIVE had made the right choice to choose him. She still had her doubts about the other two though, but they were new, hell they admitted it. This was their first mission after graduating; they hadn't really expected the Titans to show up. But they had. It must have been a slow week.

Well, with Gauntlet and Gizmo out for the count for now, Savior fighting off TT as he kept trying and failing to get to Juryrig, Terra and Beast Boy once again pinned to the wall by the angry Floral, and Mammoth outside fighting with Scalpel, she wondered if she had left anyone out. She couldn't rest on her laurels, not considering what was happening with the HIVE these days. Her powers used to be unique, but ever since Cord had shown up…she didn't need someone challenging her as the 'bad luck' person…

And then, Jinx realized that she had missed someone. How the hell she had missed HIM, she had no idea, as she turned sharply…

"Hey." Cyborg said.

Jinx snapped up a hand to hex her enemy…

And she hesitated. Her hand was raised but the blast wasn't coming out. Cyborg stood firm in front of her, his sonic cannon out and charged. The battle continued to go on around them, yet they stayed still, as if they were looking at each other across an empty street rather then in the middle of a war zone. Yet both of them stood there, their hands extended, ready to fire off blasts…but neither did. As both were wondering if they should. If they could.

Jinx thought back to the Sorceress attacks. In all the chaos and destruction, the one person Cyborg had saved above all other people who weren't Titans, was her. The Sorceress had tried to drain her dry of her magical power, only to have Cyborg lunge at her like he was a man possessed. Considering the Sorceress' certain 'issues' about science and technology, the fact that he had tried to beat the FAR more powerful mage away from her, and then carry her out of the city, was even more noteworthy.

But maybe it meant nothing. Maybe he didn't want to protect her; maybe he just wanted to prevent the Sorceress from getting her power. But whatever the case was, he had saved her. She never needed saving, she was no damsel in distress…but the Sorceress had been beyond anything she could have mustered to help herself…so he had…

Cyborg waited himself, ironically thinking along the same lines. From his undercover assignment to the Sorceress…was there more to this then the confused feelings of a teen not yet fully grown up? Maybe there was something more behind his rescue of her, maybe there was something he couldn't quite see…

But something he did see however, was the high powered mine that had rolled to a stop at his feet.

Unfortunately, during his battle with Gauntlet, Gizmo's attempted counterattack had been interrupted, resulting in him dropping the mine, which had finally run out of inadvertent momentum at Cyborg's feet, beeping extremely fast...

Jinx and Cyborg stared in horror at each other, and then they both dashed in the same direction, Jinx firing her hex blast to try and force the mine away…

However, her aim was off, as she was trying to avoid hitting the still in her field of vision Cyborg, and instead of knocking the bomb away she hit the bomb into the air.

Which just ensured the shockwave from the blast was magnified even more.

The explosion was surprisingly large, and sent both the lighter sorceress and the heavy cyborg flying through the air and out the same door Platinum Blonde had gone through, except they had even more momentum behind them and hence flew over her still trapped in the car form and into the storefront on the opposite side of the bank. Cyborg fortunately was going first through the air, as his body cleared the way for Jinx's lighter, more vulnerable form, but that also meant he was the poor soul who was greeted by the brick wall that backed up against the storefront, a small warehouse behind said wall. The pair came crashing through it and landed in a heap.

"Ow..." Cyborg said, as he blinked, even as his computer systems told him how banged up he was due to that trip (which was a lot). He tried to sit up, only to find he had a weight on him. He looked up to see Jinx on his chest, getting up, or at least trying to. Her own little ride had obviously knocked a few cobwebs loose from her head, as she coughed and sneezed on the dust and wiped her eyes before she looked down to find that she was on his chest. Shaking her stars away, she staggered to her feet and held her head.

"Bloody Titan. You're not the softest thing to land on..." She complained as she made some distance between the pair, trying to focus as she put a hand up.

"I think that wall I broke down for you would have been a lot less forgiving." Cyborg replied as he too got to his feet, somewhat steadier then Jinx was. His sonic cannon armed again, and her eyes widened and then pink energy glowed on her hand.

Once again the pair was standing face to face, their arms raised in attack mode and ready to unleash blasts of devastating power consisting of focused concussive sound and pure bad luck.

But once again they just stood there, as if frozen. It seemed that time had stopped.

The world seemingly stood still around them.

And the question kept coming across their mind; why did they hesitate? They were supposed to be enemies. They had been enemies for years.

So…Why?

That question had baffled rulers and philosophers and priests and scientists and artists for thousands of years. Why did this work? Why did we have to conform to a preset idea? Why couldn't we feel this and do that? Why does everything have to be used in a certain program? Why not... experiment with it a little? Hell, if people didn't always follow the set protocols of ideas and ideologies then maybe things could be solved quicker, and with less fuss.

Or at least that was the idea behind peace discussions. When people got tired of fighting for the right to lead or the right to control or whatever drove them, people started to talk to one another, trying to prove that one could solve things without fighting. However that only seemed to work until someone changed their mind and wanted to pick a fight again. So was trying new things a waste?

No.

It just needs to be perfected.

And that was the problem we now had here. We had a hero, a young and diligent man with a personality and will stronger than ten normal men, and a villain who had robbed and cheated her way through banks and god knows how many other things across the city. These same two, according to the rules of superheroing and villainy, had to fight each other until one either ran away without the goods they came for, or was knocked unconscious, or arrested, or worse.

But these two didn't want to follow those rules.

No…it seemed they were tired of fighting.

If this was a Western, a tumbleweed might have rolled by while men and women in the saloon looked on or played cards. And eventually, an action would need to be taken.

But no one shouted 'draw' or something in the vein of the legendary John Wayne ("Fill your hand, you sunavabitch!") or fired off insults, or arrogantly predicted on how this would end. They just stood there, staring with unsure expressions on their faces. You could tell that they were thinking, but you could also tell they had no idea just what they were supposed to think.

"Well..." Cyborg said quietly, his arm lowering slightly from its original high pose. As if he was looking into a mirror, Jinx's hand did at the same time.

"I guess we have to go back to fighting." Jinx finished for him.

"I guess so." He replied.

"Yeah."

There was another pause.

"Er..." Cyborg said, trying to break the silence. "Ladies first?"

"Um..." Jinx muttered, as she paused and straightened slightly. "Uh…thanks..."

She paused again, not sure what to do.

"It's nothing personal." She finally said, before raising her hand again and firing off a hex blast.

Though her face almost looked a little pained as she did so.

* * *

Terra bounced off the wall and dodged away as another vine whip slashed at her less than bulky frame. Floral may have started the fight looking like a scared child, but Terra and Beast Boy had clearly hit a nerve in her, a big one. Or maybe she (obviously) didn't like geokinetics, or the shape shifting boyfriends of said. Indeed, she seemed to be going after Terra with a greater focus then the average supervillain did.

She wondered just what was behind it. Everyone had their nemesis, maybe this Floral girl was hers? Did she need a nemesis? Then again it seemed like every great hero had one. Even if they were unassuming. Yes, Floral wasn't exactly in the same league as, say, Brother Blood, but before he had turned up Cyborg's nemesis was Gizmo.

Everyone started somewhere, she assumed. Maybe Terra would upgrade to another one?

Or maybe that was a bad idea?

Another whip came down upon her like a vulture screeching for a carcass, and Terra decided that maybe wishing for a greater nemesis was indeed a bad idea, as it still wasn't clear if she could survive this one.

Beast Boy was having even worse luck. His animal forms were far more suited for downing humanoid opponents, not masses of angry vines. His lone attempt to become a large herbivore and eat some of the plants had only result in him nearly choking to death as the vines rammed themselves down his throat, not to mention pissing Floral off all over again. He was currently a bear and was trying to hack through the attacking vines with his claws, but for every vine he slashed three more took its place. Not to mention the strange sounds the vines made (they couldn't be screaming. PLANTS COULD NOT SCREAM) was royally weirding him out…and before he knew it the vines had entangled him and slammed him against the wall, again. Beast Boy turned human again to try and fake the vines out and wiggle free, but they adapted too quick and he was swiftly ensnared once more. He saw in the corner of his eye that Terra was suffering the same fate: the vines kept hitting her in the head and interrupting her concentration every time she tried to put together any kind of rock assault.

"Now do you see our power? Do you know how terrible our wrath is?" Floral was yelling. The poor girl had definitely cracked, but Beast Boy had more pressing concerns then her mental stability, like getting free before said lack of stability resulted in his body being turned into fertilizer.

The pillar arm pistoned down and thudded into the floor where Savior had just been standing: he was at the moment leaping backwards as he lashed out with Shimmer strands, tearing and ripping at the debris monster, but everything he damaged just got reabsorbed almost immediately. Savior found he was being driven into a corner again. He wasn't very happy: none of his moves were making a dent. And from what he saw with Beast Boy and Terra, they were doing pretty damn poorly as well…

And then it occurred to Savior: if at first you don't succeed, switch places with someone else.

The vault hand swung sideways at Savior: he sprang up and against the wall, acting like he was aiming for Juryrig, who continued to stay behind his creation and away from Savior's attacks. TT automatically lunged to the side to protect its puppeteer…which was just what Savior wanted, as it left the direction Savior was really heading in wide open, as he shoved himself at the wall and at the vine masses holding Terra and Beast Boy, spinning into a tight somersault as Shimmer blades sprang from his form, turning his body into a whirling dervish of blades that sliced through the collection of vines holding the pair. Floral shrieked loudly, even as Savior landed on the floor, wincing at the noise (what the hell was that?). Beast Boy and Terra were already free: Savior jerked his head at them to indicate a direction (towards Juryrig), and hoped that would be enough for them to understand as he turned back to Floral.

"No! My friends! You hurt my kin!" Floral yelled.

"Hey, Poison Ivy and Swamp Thing called. They want their shtick back." Savior replied, as he formed Shimmer blades on his arms.

Terra and Beast Boy headed for Juryrig, who had needed some time to swing TT around and get behind it again. But Terra figured there were enough rocks in the creation for her to turn the battle in her favor…

If Floral hadn't proceeded to completely lose it.

"YOU DESTRUCTIVE VICIOUS MEATBAGS!"

The whole middle of the floor of the bank exploded, the number of vines literally quintupling within a second. Savior's eyes widened.

"Fiddlesticks."

A mass of vines, this time covered in ripping thorns, lashed at Savior, who barely managed to turn his blades into shields before it slammed into him. Pain shot through Savior's body as the thorns torn into the vulnerable to blades Shimmer, but that was just the beginning of the pain as the plant attack carried Savior into the front wall of the bank and then THROUGH it. Only the fact that the wall had been weakened by previous attacks, plus Savior's highly trained mind throwing up a last second Shimmer shield on his back as well saved Savior from being broken in half or some other unpleasant fate: it still hurt like hell as the vines let him go and he bounced once off the stairs and fell into the middle of the street.

"Geez! Rose, calm down! We're supposed to ROB this place, not RAZE it!" Juryrig yelled, but Floral was clearly beyond any kind of advice, as vines rose up underneath her and carried her out, slithering across the ground and shoving more of the wall out of the way to get to Savior.

Savior got to one knee, spitting blood as he watched the plant commander head out after him…and the fact the bank was starting to wobble.

"Shit." Savior said, as he wiped blood from his mouth and then leapt back and away from another vine bludgeon. The massive green tendril shot across the street and slammed into the same storefront that Cyborg and Jinx had taken their earlier trip through: this impact caused the abandoned store to collapse completely into a pile of rubble. Savior took that in and decided that yep, the bank was definitely starting to keel over as well.

"TERRA!" Savior yelled. "BRACE IT UP! Beast Boy, guard her flank!"

"Good idea." Beast Boy said, as a large chunk of rubble from the ceiling hit the ground not three feet from him. Terra grabbed a nearby stone platform and flew away, Beast Boy following, as Juryrig stared, unsure of what to do.

Then another piece of rubble hit the ground near him and shattered, and he was enveloped in a thick cloud of dust.

Savior looked around. His other three teammates were nowhere in sight, which meant he was on his own. Peachy.

"Now…" Floral said, as she towered above Savior on her mass of plants. "You will pay animal! You will all pay!"

"Oh really. All of us?" Savior said.

"Yes! Every flesh and blood creature on this planet has trodden upon us for too long! But soon…we shall take it all back! We shall cleanse this planet of all you humans, all you animals, all you pieces of meat, and create a PARADISE OF GREEN!" Floral trumpeted, as she looked down on Savior.

Whose expression startled her. He didn't look angry or scared. Instead he looked…contemptuous.

"You idiot." Savior said. "If you kill all the animals, the OXYGEN BREATHERS, on this planet, then what's going to turn the oxygen back into carbon dioxide for YOU to breathe?"

Floral opened her mouth to reply…

And stopped as Savior's words hit her like a bolt of lightning…because they were true. She'd been ranting about killing all the animals, global genocide…and if she did that they're be nothing to produce carbon dioxide for plants to breathe. It was the cycle that was in life: plants took in carbon dioxide and expelled oxygen, and animals did the reverse, and hence life existed.

And she had actually been willing, WANTED…to destroy that balance…

"…What….what's going on…" Floral said, as her plant platform began to shrink, retreating back into the earth. "I wanted…by the soil, what I wanted…that's not what I want…but…they…and…oh Duo…Duo…what's happening…what kind of mistake is this…"

"Ahem."

Floral looked up from her hands and realized two things. One, her plant platform had shrunk so much she had actually descended back to the street. Two, that put her a level plane with Savior. Her eyes widened.

"Epiphanies are grand and all." Savior said. "But don't let them get in the way of practicalities."

And Savior thrust back a hand: a lightning quick blow to this small girl's temple should deal with her…

If a shadow hadn't fallen over him.

"Practicalities?" Said a new voice, and Savior's eyes widened. No way. How in the hell could he move so quietly…?

"Like not watching your back?"

Savior whirled, and then the vault hand was swinging down. Yes, he was right, much to his regret: while Terra had been bracing up the bank (and still was) and Beast Boy was guarding her (bracing was a delicate business), Juryrig had somehow snuck out one of the large holes that the Titans and HIVE had knocked out of the bank walls, circled around Savior, and gotten the drop on him with his giant golem he called Titanic Tommy. He was definitely a student of the game…

The vault hand closed in.

And slammed into Savior as he threw himself down on the street even as he fired off half a dozen Shimmer strands to keep the vault door away from him. The strain was terrible though, as evidenced by his face's expression and the fact that cracks immediately began to spiderweb out from where the Shimmer was braced on the ground.

"Floral, go back in the bank! Grab whatever you can! We don't want this to be a complete bust!" Juryrig ordered. Floral stared at the scene for a moment longer before she nodded and ran back towards the badly battered bank.

Unfortunately, two things worked against her. One was the fact that having been snapped out of her 'CRUSH KILL DESTROY' mindset, the steel it had put in her spine had apparently been drained away as well. The second was the inside of the bank was very dusty and she couldn't see where she was going…

And hence ran into Beast Boy.

Who promptly turned into a velocirapter and screamed at her. Floral screamed in turn and promptly ran away, leaving a confused Beast Boy to turn back to normal and scratch his head. Hadn't she wanted to kill him a minute ago?

* * *

And speaking of confused battles, let us return to the one raging in a nearby warehouse.

Cyborg fired his cannon at Jinx, but the pink haired mistress of ill fortune easily dodged it with her acrobatic cartwheels, returning fire with hex blasts that made some boxes around Cyborg explode, pelting him with shards of wood. Which was pretty damn ineffective: cyborgs could hardly get splinters. And Cyborg knew it.

She wasn't trying as hard as she could.

And why not? Neither was he.

But since nothing had been settled on yet, the motions continued to be gone through, as Jinx darted around several boxes and Cyborg lost sight of her. He returned his cannon to his normal arm shape and put his eye in search mode, looking around…

As she sprang off a box to his side and lashed out with a kick.

Cyborg blocked it, a dull ringing noise coming from his arm, as he began to counter. She was wide open…

And he didn't take advantage of it, allowing her to land and flip away from something that should have clearly cost her dearly. And her eyes knew it.

"What the hell are you doing?" She yelled.

"You tell me!" Cyborg replied.

"Look, you have to take this seriously!"

"Oh yeah? Why?"

"Just…because!" Jinx yelled as she swept up her arms and fired off several waves of pink energy, her hexing power causing the worst of all possibilities to befall whatever it touched, the floor cracking and exploding from the blasts as Cyborg leapt backwards again.

"…Yeah…I suppose that's it in the end." Cyborg said, as he re-armed his cannon. In the end things just had to go a certain way, as he aimed…

And then suddenly the meters he saw with his cybernetic eye went crazy.

"Argh!" He screamed, his cannon shutting off in mid-fire, which just led to him being tossed backwards a bit, landing on his back. Cyborg gritted his teeth as readings continued to flash before his eyes.

And the worst part was he knew exactly why he was seeing these readings, and despite kicking himself he knew he deserved it. That trip through the walls had banged him up, and he should have immediately done a system scan and initiated any internal repairs he could before they magnified, but no, he'd been too caught up in his confusion, the maelstrom of feelings within him clashing and distracting him, and now the damage coupled with Jinx's hex power had come back to bite him: something had broken in him and his systems were threatened by an emergency shutdown. The bad kind of emergency shutdown: Cyborg didn't just risk turning off, he risked having vital parts of his body or memory damaged if he didn't contain the problem right away. Which he had to, as he raised his arm as a panel flipped open, trying to press the buttons needed…

More chaos spasmed within him. Too late for that, as his arm jerked and then went dead. More signs appeared before Cyborg's vision, and he knew he was in serious trouble…and it looked like there was nothing that could be done…

Or…

Jinx had watched Cyborg yell and suddenly collapse. It was so sudden she had stood there, shocked, for several seconds before it occurred to her. He was down. She could finish him off or leave or…

…or what?

In the end, Jinx found herself running towards Cyborg, even as his arm spasmed and slammed against the ground, not moving. His teeth set in a clenching rictus, Cyborg wondered if he should just shut himself down ahead of the problem: it might make the consequences even worse but it also might lessen them or avoid them outright and that would be better…

And then he saw her, looking down on him.

And he wondered if he'd even get a chance to do ANYTHING. He was helpless and completely at her mercy. She could fire a hex blast right into his head and fry his brain/computer right then and there…

And yet…

And yet…

They looked at each other again.

And Cyborg wagered it all.

"…Help me." He pleaded.

* * *

In the streets of Jump City, bedlam reigned in the area where the battle took place. Yells, screams, roars, crashes, explosions, destruction, it had it all and more.

And from his perch nearby, leaning on one extended knee, the Jackal took it all in. He looked strangely content.

"Perhaps this place, wherever it is, might not be so bad."

_To Be Continued_


	6. Still More Fighting

Chapter 5: Still More Fighting

The technique of dimensional travel had always been a tricky business. After all, if something is so difficult to initiate, there is probably a good reason for it.

And even if it happens, nothing is certain. Time and space cease to exist in their classical meanings. Just because you all left at roughly the same time does not mean you will all arrive at the same time. Or in one place.

The exact science would blow most people's mind…

And there is already too much confusion in the world, and one can barely help it already…

* * *

So let us get to something that lacked any kind of confusion, and where neither side was going to be asking the other for help, as another aspect of he battle between the Titans and HIVE continued… 

"GRUHHHHHHHH!" Mammoth roared as he swung one of his ham hock sized fists. He and Scalpel had fought around the corner from the bank and down the street, forcing some police to get out of the way as the twin warriors crashed through their cars and used them as weapons before returning to their fists.

Mammoth's fist thudded into an interlocked block from Scalpel's arms, who immediately yanked them apart to shove Mammoth away and counterattacked, his claws ripping a slight wound in Mammoth's side (Mammoth had mild invulnerability, but not enough to protect from all wounds), before he turned the strike into a cartwheel away from Mammoth.

Who reached out and grabbed the cape attached to the back of the suit, stopping Scalpel in mid move.

"Hah! Now I gotcha…!"

The cape's buckles snapped off at the shoulders, as Scalpel twisted an arm up and flung the cape into Mammoth's face. Mammoth yelled as his vision was completely obscured for a few seconds before he finally got a grip on the cape and threw it away…

Only to find his vision filling again, this time with another car. It slammed into him, knocking him to the ground with a wounded bellow.

Scalpel chuckled to himself…and then his eye spied something. What did you know, his glaive was several feet away. He'd had no idea where it had gone when he'd originally lost it, but it had come back to him.

Mammoth roared in rage and threw the car off him and into the air like it weighed half a pound instead of half a ton. The flying automobile vanished over the edge of a building as Mammoth, actually showing some grace, managed to flip to his feet…

As Scalpel hooked his foot under his glaive and tossed it up into his arms. Mammoth arced an eyebrow as Scalpel did a few spins and then spun the glaive under his elbow, as he gestured with his free hand for Mammoth to bring it.

Mammoth brought it, charging forward with another roar.

If Savior had the breath to spare, he probably would have been roaring himself due to the utter strain he was under as TT's vault hand continued to press down on him. He'd yelled for help, but with the noise of Terra's bank bracing no one had heard him, and all the dust she was making ensured that neither Beast Boy or Terra could see him. Gauntlet was out of action for the moment, and Cyborg and Scalpel were nowhere to be seen.

Sweat ran into his eyes, stinging them, even as Juryrig laughed lightly from wherever he was.

"Well Savior, your reputation precedes you, but even the best make mistakes. But for your effort, I'll make sure you get a big hand." The black teen said, and then refocused his concentration for the final push.

Never realizing that Savior was doing the exact same thing.

And then luck favored Savior, as a car came crashing down on the ground near Juryrig. Though it missed him completely, it startled him, and Savior felt the pressure lessen, just a bit…

And he acted.

"Hey asshole." Savior said. In the way the insulted do, Juryrig couldn't help but look at the speaker.

"It's not the size that matters…" Savior growled, as several Shimmer strands erupted from his chest and swiftly merged together, sprouting razor sharp blades that pressed up against the huge thick metal circle. "IT'S HOW YOU USE IT!"

And Savior turned his 'buzzsaw' on, and a horrific shriek filled the air as the Shimmer construct began to cut through the vault door. Juryrig recoiled at the horrific noise, a factor Savior had gambled on as it lessened the weight on him, even as the Shimmer construct continued to saw through the door. Terra and Beast also recoiled from the terrible sound, and despite his distance Scalpel's large ears also detected it and he winced.

Savior was ironically the only one who DIDN'T hear the noise thanks to Shimmer earplugs, but he was getting a far worse experience. His talent was powerful, and had been known to shatter stone and cut and pierce through metal, but that stone tended to be only a few feet thick, and the metal much thinner, usually only an inch or three. Cutting through nearly a foot and a half of reinforced titanium was a whole different monster, and the result was a feedback that slammed into his body like a combination offensive line of a football team and a giant bucket of acid, his nervous system screaming from the strain, sparks burning his face, but despite the horrible experience he did not yield, because he was a Titan and he had a duty and he WOULD NOT YIELD…

The door snapped in half.

And the second gamble Savior had played panned out: Savior had figured that to so effectively control his creations Juryrig had to be connected to them in SOME way, and while Savior's previous attacks on TT hadn't seemed to bother him much, those had been the equivalent of scraping him. Sawing the vault door in half was more akin to driving a nail into his palm, as the black teen recoiled with a yell…

And Savior put his final move into play, as he redirected the strands he had been using to keep the vault door hand from crushing him and sent them surging out and into the TT golem, wrapping around what they could…and then Savior yanked his arms apart and pulled the golem apart as well. The feedback of this was three times as bad as what Savior had done with the vault door, as Juryrig recoiled with a scream and then collapsed on his back as his creation fell to pieces around Savior.

Savior collapsed on his own back, breathing heavily, as a trickle of blood came from his noise. That had not been fun.

"Whoo hoo! All right Savior!" Beast Boy said from where he had witnessed the last few seconds of this conflict (dust did clear, after all)…and then something occurred to him: where was Cyborg? He could see Terra and Savior, and he could hear Scalpel's yells, and he had watched Gauntlet get buried under rubble (and if you ask why he wasn't going to go help him, it was because once Gauntlet had been buried and Beast Boy had attempted to dig him out only to get inadvertently punched in the face when Gauntlet had attempted to free himself, so he wasn't exactly keen to try and help again), but where was Cyborg, his best friend? He should have at least been able to HEAR him; his sonic cannon made a very distinct sound.

Worry creased Beast Boy's brow. Something seemed off to him about this absence somehow. And Beast Boy didn't like to worry.

"You ok Terra?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yeah! Just about done!" Terra said from her perch where she had been manipulating stone to brace the badly damaged bank.

"Ok! I'm going to go find Cy!"

"All right!" Terra replied.

"Savior! I'm going to go get Cyborg!" Beast Boy yelled as he ran down the steps and turned into a cheetah, running past the car where Platinum Blonde was STILL stuck, reaching the end of the street before he became a bloodhound and sniffed the air, and then became a cheetah again to run down another street.

Never realizing that Savior hadn't yet removed his Shimmer earplugs and hadn't heard a word he had said.

Terra gestured as she finished the last of her makeshift repairs and then 'wipe-clapped' her hands in the way some people do to express satisfaction…and then she spied a small figure off in the distance. She might have been blonde, but she wasn't stupid: she had a feeling she knew who that was. Having learned that letting the past rule you brought nothing, Terra hopped off the rock and ran towards the figure, which had disappeared into the vault and was now dragging out one of the discarded money bags.

"Hey!" Terra yelled, and took some satisfaction at the way Floral jumped.

And then Terra regretted not just attacking, as Floral whirled and thrust out her hand, and vines snaked out of the ground and flew at Terra, who swore and ripped part of the floor out to protect her, only to find the vines coiling around her barrier and heading for her as she dove away.

Mammoth's fists, laced together in a hammer shape, slammed down on the street where Scalpel had been half a second ago, as the alien leapt away and did a few more fancy glaive spins. Mammoth roared and charged, swinging out his fist in a giant haymaker, which Scalpel ducked under, rolled away from, and sprang up as he did more Blacktrinian tricks.

"COWARD!" Mammoth roared. "STAND AND FIGHT!"

"Heh. If you only knew." Scalpel said to himself, for in fact the reason he was running away and showing off was because he was trying to wait for a moment where he could use his glaive to disable Mammoth without killing or maiming him: Blacktrinian combat techniques were hardly built with mercy in mind…

"Cowardly FREAK!" Mammoth bellowed as he charged in again. "STAND STILL AND FIGHT LIKE A MAN!"

Scalpel's eyes narrowed. He was good-natured by default but even he didn't like his courage being insulted…

"As you wish." Scalpel said, and cocked back his glaive arm…

And hurled the glaive into the air with a light underhand swing. Mammoth, like most muscle, tended to be ready to react to one kind of move, and when that move didn't come, they had a nasty habit of freezing up for a second, as Mammoth looked up to follow the glaive…

As Scalpel dashed two steps forward and swung his foot up right between Mammoth's legs as hard as he could.

"OYYYYYAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mammoth screamed: apparently the legend of a voice getting higher from a testicular shot had some basis in fact.

"Now that's pure human." Scalpel said, as he opened his right palm, his glaive falling into it even as he grabbed his hat with his left hand and in turn tossed it into the air…

And then planted the glaive and did a pole vault swing, slamming his foot across Mammoth's face and sending him flying across the street and crashing through the front of another store. Scalpel landed, plucked his falling hat from the air, spun it back onto his heat, and gave a toothy grin.

Which was oddly similar to Savior's grimace as he tried to get up, one knee on the ground as he took deep breaths. That buzzsaw had taken a lot out of him…

And then, in a sudden quick gesture, Juryrig flipped up to his feet in a no handed kip up, doing a few hop steps at the end that was either showing off or stabilizing balance.

"Heh. So you weren't quite as helpless as you looked. Looks like I made a mistake too." Juryrig said. "But if you think that ripping apart my creation was enough to take ME down as well, you are sadly mistaken."

Savior fired off a halfhearted Shimmer lance, but his exhaustion made it easy to dodge as Juryrig took several leaping steps back.

"Oh yeah. I can rebuild him. I have the power! Or…the technology…or something!" Juryrig said, and raised his arms. Savior furiously tried to sort his body back out before Juryrig reformed his monster…

And it was clear that wasn't going to happen, as the wreckage rose up from the street and began reforming, far quicker then the first time (which Savior attributed to Juryrig having measured his competency and deciding he better not dilly-dally this time, damn, he DID have a brain on him), new wreckage from how the battle had proceeded being drawn to join it…

And it was clear the shape was different. Savior had managed to break the pillar in half with his previous attack, and it wasn't forming an arm this time, no, it appeared to be forming…

Horns.

The wrecked car that Mammoth had startled Juryrig with flew past him and slammed down on the street before Savior, joining another generic wrecked car as pieces of stone, metal, and a few street usuals like mail and newspaper boxes flew in to form legs. The sawn in half vault door was lifted up and placed under the pillar horns, forming a mouth, even as a pair of broken streetlights formed new eyes and more junk and ruins assembled behind the creation to complete a body and another pair of legs.

Within five seconds it was complete, a larger quadruped golem that looked a lot like a cross between a dog and a bull.

Savior, still recovering, finally regained his feet and began backing up. This was too much. He needed help, as he pulled his communicator out of his jacket.

"Savior to Titans! Assistance required! Now! Immediately!" Savior said.

"Ahhhhhh…" Juryrig said, as he walked from between the front "legs" of the construct. "I think I'll call this one…Titanic Tommy…The TERMINATOR."

"Aid is required! This is an order! NOW!" Savior yelled, as Juryrig pointed. "Shit!"

Savior tried to put the communicator away and jump back at the same time: this time his multitask attempt failed and the communicator slipped out of his hand and fell to the ground, where it was immediately smashed into spare parts by one of the car-paws of the newly re-christened Titanic Tommy The Terminator (T4). Savior cursed again as he leapt away from a way too fast swinging paw blow which shattered several windows on the second floor of a building. Where were his allies?

Well, Gauntlet was still stuck under some rubble. And if he'd been conscious he would have taken the time to point out how this proved he wasn't a Gary Stu. Or maybe complaining how long the crossover was taking to set up like everyone else: PATIENCE PEOPLE! Rome wasn't built in a day!

Anyway, Gauntlet was under rubble.

And Beast Boy, currently sniffing around as a pig a street away, had lost his communicator during the Floral fight.

And Terra's fight with Floral was making too much racket for her to hear anything.

Scalpel heard the message, but as he picked up his communicator to respond Mammoth exploded out of the dusty ruin Scalpel had kicked him into, and Scalpel couldn't switch from answering to a defensive stance in time (Mammoth's anger had apparently boosted his speed) as Mammoth charged into him and slammed his left fist directly into Scalpel's chest, sending him flying down the street. Mammoth let out a satisfied snorting laugh and followed.

* * *

And Cyborg…well he wasn't exactly in the best state to hear or answer messages. 

"Help me!" The teen machine pleaded, looking up at Jinx. Part of him kept telling him that this was stupid: she was a HIVE member, a few confused feelings didn't mean a thing, he was throwing away his pride. Another part of him was retorting that they had no options. And a third part was saying that she WOULD help, it knew it…

Though Jinx clearly didn't.

"…What?" Jinx finally said, though whether this meant she wanted specifics or had no idea what was going on was unsure. Cyborg went with the former.

"In…my neck! Emergency…reboot switch!" Cyborg managed to grunt out. This was an extreme risk: the reboot switch was only known to his allies because it worked both ways: flipping it off and then back on allowed Cyborg's systems to restart, which was usually more then enough to get around and then fix errors. The downside was if Jinx just flipped it once and left it there, Cyborg would just shut down and that would be it. She could take him apart or leave him or use him as a giant ventriloquist's dummy, he wouldn't be able to do a thing.

A small part of Cyborg's brain chimed in with an irony: the last time the reboot switch had been used had been by Savior to rescue Cyborg from the clutches of the ASP, the white supremist organization that had murdered his last girlfriend. And here he was asking Jinx to do the same, Jinx…who had stirred feelings in him he had once thought died forever with Latrisha…

"Please…" Cyborg said, even as his systems informed him he was on the verge of a complete meltdown. "Please…Llarenes…"

Jinx gasped. He knew her name…but of course he did, it was on her criminal records…but…

"Llarenes…"

* * *

And from one crisis to another. 

"Why can't you leave us alone!" Floral yelled, as she fired more vines at Terra, who managed to entangle them in some dirt long enough to get away, panting. She was tiring out and not doing one iota of damage to Floral, but she wasn't going to let the plant girl get away with the money. But she couldn't think of anything else to do, because Floral's plant attacks kept her from concentrating…

Wait…

If SHE needed concentration to use effective moves, who says Floral didn't as well?

The difference was, Terra's powers gave her an opening she could exploit far more easily. Floral's plants might have easily been defeating her rocks and dirt…

And they were erupting beneath her. Terra gasped, and then went with the move as she yanked the loosened rock out from under her, the vines still coiling around it and keeping her from flying away, but she didn't want to fly, she just wanted to jump, as she held out a hand.

A pebble flew into it.

And then Terra channeled the spirit of David as she rolled the pebble to her thumb and flicked it out, using her power to put more impact behind it and make it fly true…

It slammed into Floral's forehead.

"OWWWWWWWWWW!" Floral whined, recoiling back and holding her forehead.

The plants all turned to attend to Floral, and even that appeared to be a stretch, as they seemed limper now, less alive. Terra landed and grinned.

"What's wrong? Remembering that while your plants can rip through the earth, your skull isn't quite so effective at it?" Terra taunted.

"You…you mean…ie!" Floral sputtered, as she tried to regain her focus and teach Terra a lesson.

Except Terra was running at her, and her long legs allowed her to make up the distance fast, and with her headache Floral knew she couldn't effectively command her plants to attack her, as she screamed and ran away, but her short statue didn't make that very effective as Terra continued to chase after her.

"I've been trained in hand to hand! Have you?" Terra yelled after her.

"AHHHHHHH LEAVE ME ALONE!" Floral yelled. And while part of Terra liked this, another part made her realize that she'd accomplished her goal: she'd kept Floral away from the vault. She gestured behind her and yanked up a large chunk of stone that rammed itself into the opening to keep anyone else from getting inside, and then continued her chase of Floral out of the bank and down a nearby street.

A few moments later, Gizmo stumbled out of a dusty part of the ruined bank (problem with enclosed fights with geokinetics: they made a lot of dust). The midget mechanical genius coughed while cursing in his usual way, his eyes watering as he looked around for friends or foes. He found none, so he headed for the vault…only to find a giant bolder jammed in the door. Cursing that he hadn't brought more heavy ordnance equipment, Gizmo ejected the broken flight section of his backpack and slammed in another one, activating a jetpack as he flew out of the bank, hoping to be able to grab one of his stronger comrades to get the bank open before the Titans regrouped.

Gauntlet remained stuck under rubble, having banged his head and knocked himself silly. Fortunately for him, his gauntlet energy stayed activated even if he wasn't, having formed a bubble over the host to prevent him from being crushed. Until he woke up or ran out of air, whatever came first. Remember, not a Gary Stu.

The street was quiet for a bit.

And then, FINALLY, Platinum Blonde was able to get the proper leverage needed to rip herself free from the car.

"_Porcs!"_ She cursed as she got out, angry at how she had been stuck for so long, at the fact no one had helped her, and embarrassed at how her dress was torn (she wasn't indecent, but one wrong blow from the wrong angle and…). _"Batards foutus! Je casserai vos visages en…"_

The motion caught her eye, and she followed it…as the figure leapt down from the nearby roof in front of her. A figure clad in a black outfit with a long flowing cape…and a cowl.

Shaped like a bat's head.

Her immediate reaction was absolute, knee-jerk panic. It was _him._ The Bat. The legendary protector of Gotham, a man whose reality might actually surpass the myths told about him. A human man who had brought GODS to their knees, or at least given them pause. She was dead. She was screwed. She was…

Confused.

Something was wrong about Batman.

For one thing, he was a lot shorter then she thought he would be.

The second, the cowl on his chest was a yellow outline of a bat rather then a black symbol, and his mouth was sewn up, exposing no skin at all.

And third…he had a lot of curves. Way too many curves. Curves men didn't have, unless something was REALLY wrong with them.

Her panic faded as she realized it wasn't Batman at all. It was a girl in a Batsuit, though how old she was was something Platinum Blonde couldn't tell. On the heels of the panic came arrogance. Batman was something to be feared, but some random girl in a suit similar to his? She would pound her into the ground so hard they'd need a Bat-Spatula to peel her off it.

"Oh ho ho ho ho!" Platinum Blonde said, her laugh coming off as a cross between a stereotypical French laugh and a more 'American laugh'. "What have we here? Is the suit being hired out now?"

The girl in the batsuit just cocked her head a bit.

"I thank you." Platinum Blonde said. "I needed something to destroy. You'll do. HAHHHHHH!" Platinum Blonde yelled as she ran forward and swung out her fist.

The girl dodged, as Platinum Blonde's fist slammed into the car that had held her for so long and sent it flying into the side of the building, even as she fired off more fists at the girl. The girl effortlessly dodged, her moments so fluid it was almost like a dance, but Platinum Blonde wasn't concerned. All she had to do was land one punch.

And as the girl dodged another and finally attacked, a sweeping kick that glanced off Platinum's Blonde thigh and was barely felt, the metal girl grew even more cocky: unless the girl had a Bat-Rail Cannon tucked in her (admittedly large) belt, she wouldn't be able to even bother her, as she swung out another punch and the girl ducked her head away.

A movement mirrored by Savior as he leapt backwards down a nearby street, desperately trying to dodge the charging T4 as he stampeded after him, stomping with its car paws or biting at him with the vault mouth. Juryrig rode on the back, holding onto something as he comfortably and seemingly effortless chased Savior down to grind under his heels.

Savior leapt away and found the mouth coming for him: he almost yelped before Shimmer strands shot from his feet and yanked him back to the ground as the mouth's angled attack caused it to tear into the side of another building…

As its paw swung out and caught Savior as he landed. Savior flew across the entire street and slammed into the brick façade of another building, the wall caving in slightly and leaving him stuck at the impact point as he shook his head and tried to recover.

"HELP! I REQUEST HELP!" Savior yelled.

Scalpel heard the yell, but he currently had his own problems, as a surge of pain and a sudden wetness in his chest caused him to groan, a groan that turned into a cough. Mammoth had opened up an old wound that never ever seemed to heal fully because Nigel never took the necessary time for it TO heal, and it was bleeding again, a wound Mammoth could exploit, as Scalpel tried to shove himself up and get back in the game as Mammoth approached him, chuckling. Coughing again, blood leaking from his mouth, Nigel started crawling away, trying to lull Mammoth in so he could be ready to counter his attack.

"Aw, what's wrong? Running away?" Mammoth said, as he cracked his knuckles. "That's right! Run away! Run back to that fat sow of yours!"

Scalpel stopped dead.

"You know when I'm done with you I think I'll broil her up for hambur…!" Mammoth said as he swung his fist out.

Scalpel caught the hand and stopped the blow dead, his black eyes blazing.

**_"TYCHOLOR!"_** Scalpel snarled in his native alien language, which translated to something like "Cheap son of a penny whore!"

Mammoth didn't have time to worry about the insult though, as Scalpel swung him overhead like he weighed nothing and slammed Mammoth into the ground…and then lifted him back up and slammed him onto the ground again on the other side, Mammoth bellowing and trying to break free, until Scalpel lifted him up and slammed him on the other side of the ground again, the third one knocking the fight out of Mammoth, which didn't stop Scalpel in the least as he lifted and slammed Mammoth against the ground a forth time and then one more time with interest, sending a giant spray of stone chunks into the air.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhhh…" Mammoth groaned, his eyes in swirl shapes.

Scalpel let go of his arm.

And grabbed his foot.

"WhaAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mammoth screamed as Scalpel began spinning, using Mammoth's body as a hammer thrower might in the Olympics. "WAHHHHH-WAHHHHH-WAHHHHH-WAHHHHHH-WAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Mammoth screamed as Scalpel spun him around repeatedly and then let him go as Mammoth went flying off into the air and off into the distance. He landed with a dull crash.

**_"SOCOTORLA HKLOTBA GHYN WETBHOUAD KLOTT!"_** Scalpel snarled after Mammoth. You could harm him, you could insult him, you could beat him stupid, but NO ONE insulted Sophie. She'd endured enough from life: anything else anyone wanted to lay on her shoulders would answer to him. And I'd translate what he said, except I think Fanfiction Dot Net would probably need a brand new rating for it.

His rage faded quickly, as Nigel shook his head and recovered his senses. Savior. He needed help. Scalpel snatched up the glaive and ran off.

And that help was becoming even more urgent, as Savior slumped in his stuck crater and tried to recover some strength, even as Juryrig smiled down the street and put his hands together like he was lining up for a picture.

The pillar horns on T4's head shifted so they pointed forward.

"Toro!" Juryrig said, as he leapt off the back of the construct, and T4 charged.

Savior's eyes widened as the creature made a mad dash down the road towards him.

"OH SHIT!"

The creature's head plowed into Savior's form and then into the building, the whole structure coming down around the creature's 'ears'.

And in the vein of running, Floral and Terra were still doing it.

"Come on!" Terra said after Floral. "One of us has to tire eventually! I bet it won't be…"

And Terra relearned one of the hard lessons of battles: sometimes one should shut up.

As a root sprouted from the concrete and tripped her, and Terra's momentum carried her off the ground and then back into it, face first. If she hadn't subconsciously used her power to make the rock secede somewhat from her impact point, chances were she would have gotten up looking considerably less prettier then she was. Despite that fact, it still hurt.

Fortunately for Terra, Floral had lost her taste for fighting. She wanted out. And as she turned to make sure Terra was down, the ground rumbled and split under her, roots materialized around her feet.

Terra shook her head as she tried to get the three Floral's in her vision to come back together, only to find them all disappearing. Her vision cleared, and Terra got up to find that Floral was gone, only a hole left where she had been.

Panicking that she would be caught off guard, Terra grabbed up a rock perch and flew up into the air, expecting every foot of ascension for a vine to reach up and grab her. Strangely, none came, and Terra soon found herself floating a hundred feet above the ground, looking warily down upon it. As before, no attack came. Floral had apparently retreated. Terra looked down for a few more seconds and then shrugged. She'd file this one under 'no-contest': she might have her arrogant moments but she knew…

Micro missiles exploded around her, and she yelped and tried to fly away as the heat seared her and tiny bits of shrapnel pelted her form.

"You like that, you snot-eating door blocker?" Gizmo laughed. "Well you're REALLY gonna…"

Terra whirled as she pointed, and her rock perch broke down the middle, twin lines appearing between her feet as she ripped the middle section of stone out from underneath her and sent it shooting out, her feet balancing on the two remaining portions as the middle part slammed into Gizmo's chest.

"CRUUDDDDDDDDD!" He yelled as he was carried away. Terra used a more classic insult as she flipped Gizmo the bird and then brought her perch together again and flew off to find someone she could help.

Perhaps someone like the new girl, who continued to 'spar' with Platinum Blonde in front of the bank, or perhaps 'dance' with her was more accurate. While Platinum Blonde had STILL not landed a blow, she sensed she was getting close, and every punch or kick the girl had thrown had either glanced off or barely been felt. Platinum Blonde wondered if this girl even belonged to the so-called "Bat Family" of Gotham: maybe she was a newcomer who thought she could get a better name for herself if she aped a more famous vigilante.

"You gonna dodge forever?" Platinum Blonde laughed. "If that is the kind of game you play, _alors je heureusement…_" She said as she threw another punch.

The girl moved so fast this time, Platinum Blonde barely caught the first movement, as the girl stepped around the blow as Platinum Blonde lunged forward…

And she never saw the follow up, as the girl's hand snapped up and to Platinum Blonde's neck, instantly locating a specific nerve spot and pinching down on it.

Platinum Blonde went down without a sound, collapsing at the girl's feet, out like a light before she even realized she had been touched.

The girl lowered her hand, flexing her fingers. She'd still had to squeeze pretty hard, but it had worked.

Platinum Blonde could have never grasped the strategy, the incredible detail of observation the girl had put the metal girl through for the several seconds the Frenchwoman had stood there yakking at her before she had attacked, never realizing the so called failed and ineffective blows had in reality been careful testing of Platinum Blonde's metal form, to see if such an attack like the one that had felled her would be effective, and then, once it had been determined that the metal lacked the necessary amount of rigidity required to completely render the attack useless, she had struck immediately. The results spoke for themselves.

It was true she wasn't Batman.

Her name was Cassandra Cain. She was Batgirl.

And she was the greatest martial artist on the face of the planet.

She turned and left without a word, leaving her fallen foe behind.

* * *

Beast Boy wondered if Cyborg had fallen. 

His scent trails kept petering out, and Beast Boy, being the type to obsess on his worries, had had half a dozen false starts as he chased down every trace of the scent he could find instead of testing if it got stronger. It had taken a bit to get his head straight, but now he finally had a trail…leading right to a warehouse. A warehouse he realized was lined up exactly with the bank: Beast Boy kicked himself for not considering this. Well, chances were Cyborg was in that warehouse.

The door was locked. It was also designed to resist humans, not gorillas, as Beast Boy broke it down with two quick blows.

"Cyborg?" Beast Boy said as he walked in. "Cyborg?"

Beast Boy became a dog to take another quick whiff. Yes, he was close. Beast Boy turned human again.

"Cyborg…" He said as he walked alongside some boxes…

* * *

As Juryrig walked through the wreckage of the building that he had sent T4 through, scanning the ruins. Finding nothing, he walked out the other side near the rear left foot of his creation, which turned around to look at him. No sign of Savior there either. 

"Well, I suppose that will do." Juryrig said, as he gestured: the head lowered and he stepped on. "Come, let's…"

Shimmer lines exploded from the 'back' of his creation, and Juryrig recoiled as Savior ripped his way from within the construct. While Juryrig apparently could control his creations from a distance, it apparently robbed him of the ability to feel everything that had happened to them, and Savior had tunneled in through the underside and waited…

Savior lunged for Juryrig…

Who fell onto the back of his creation as its body parted beneath him, and Savior snarled as Juryrig sank into the debris and vanished. A second later, T4 bucked violently, throwing Savior into the air as Juryrig popped out of the back of the 'dog'. The downside of distance talents: up close his control was absolute.

"Very nice…" Juryrig said, as Savior fell…

And then flipped as a giant Shimmer blade formed between his hands, a blade Savior drove straight through the head of T4. It couldn't scream, but Juryrig grunted as the feedback shot through his own head, even as more Shimmer lines shot out, grabbing the horns and other places on the head, as Savior ran and leapt to the side, 'reeling' out the Shimmer lines coming from his hands even as another one shot from his shoulder and anchored him to the ground, and then, like he had in the simulator, Savior used the ground-locked Shimmer strand to yank him towards the ground even as he pulled on the hand tendrils with all his might, slamming T4's head into the side of a building and a sidewalk beneath the building, releasing the strands and jumping back before he collapsed to his knees, exhausted.

The debris creature stirred for a minute, and then its head rose up, broken portions quickly shored up by the very wreckage Savior had created by slamming its head into the building.

"Very fancy." Juryrig said as he walked up to the top of the head. "But what could you have been trying to accomplish?"

He'd been trying to smash the head hard enough so that the feedback would knock Juryrig out, but clearly it hadn't worked. Savior felt exhaustion flow through him like a wave. He was overmatched this time, perhaps a tactical retreat would be wise…

"This has been fun Savior." Juryrig said. "But time waits for no man."

The T4 creature lunged forward, far quicker then Savior had expected. He tried to get away…

The head scooped down and the bottom 'jaw' of the vault mouth rammed into Savior's ankles, pitching him forward. His flip caused him to land painfully on the bottom of the 'mouth' as he rapidly tried to get up and out…

The jaw closed.

Savior brought his hands up even as Shimmer lines sprang from his arms, legs, and shoulders to try and stop the attempted crush. Once again, the vault stopped…but this time there were TWO sides of pressure, not just one. The strain immediately drove Savior to his knees, sweat pouring down his face as he tried to stave off the attack.

"Hmmmm." Juryrig said as he was suddenly standing in front of Savior, on some kind of debris tendril he had apparently added to his creation. "I heard you appreciate irony Savior. Here's one for you then. You, and by that I mean your team, have crushed the Troika. You crushed the Five. You even crushed the HIVE itself, repeatedly. But we're back, and I am afraid that this time, your burden is going to be the crushing one." Juryrig said, as he lifted a hand and rounded the fingers like he was holding an invisible ball. The fingers curled slightly, and the pressure increased even more.

Savior felt his shoulders starting to strain at their joints.

"Unless of course, you wish to surrender." Juryrig said. "But then again, I've read how proud you are Savior. But you know that pride goeth before a fall. In this case, the falling of jaws. Of doom. Heh." Juryrig said, stringing together several mini-puns. "Well?"

Considering that Savior seemed to be devoting the bulk of his Shimmer ability to staving away death, the fact that he could spare a few strands to form the very rude words he used in response was impressive. Juryrig's eyes narrowed.

"So be it then. I'm no killer, but I have nothing against putting you in a full body cast." Juryrig said, and brought his hands up for his final focus…

* * *

As Beast Boy walked around the boxes and found Jinx crouched over Cyborg. 

"HEY! YOU!" Beast Boy yelled, and Jinx's head snapped up in alarm.

Beast Boy ran and turned into a wolf in mid-leap, and Jinx shrieked a bit and jumped backwards, doing a back handspring away from Beast Boy's snapping jaws.

"Get away from him!" Beast Boy growled as he turned human and stepped over the body of Cyborg, ready to assume an offensive or defensive form depending on what was needed. "What did you do to him! You bitch!"

"I…"

"Ugh…" Cyborg said, as he blinked his organic eye, the dark parts of his body lighting up with blue power again as he came back online. What was going…?

"Cyborg? You ok?" Came a voice Cyborg had not expected to hear, and his eyes fully snapped open. Oh no…

"It's ok Cy! I stopped her!" Beast Boy said, as Cyborg sat up in alarm. Stopped? What? What happened?

And he twisted his head and saw her, standing a dozen feet away, looking confused and hurt.

Aw no. Beast Boy had tracked him down and thought Jinx had been attacking him. When she had really been saving him, and quite possibly his whole life. And just when…

When what?

"…I see." Jinx said. "Well, I know when I'm beaten. Next time Titans." Jinx said, and leapt up as she fired twin hex bolts into the ceiling. The structure promptly broke, and both Cyborg and Beast Boy had to leap out of the way of the falling wreckage. By the time Cyborg had recovered from that, Jinx was gone.

"Dude! That was close! What happened?" Beast Boy said, as he turned back to human from the lion form he had been ready to use if battle had recommenced.

"I…accident…" Cyborg said, looking at where Jinx had been.

"Accident?" Beast Boy said, confused. "So what? You turned off briefly?"

"Maybe…turned on…to something…" Cyborg said.

"Dude, what? Did your speech protocols get corrupted?" Beast Boy said.

Cyborg didn't answer.

"HELLLLLLLO! Earth to Cyborg! Danger, danger, HIVE still causing trouble!" Beast Boy yelled, snapping his fingers in front of Cyborg's face.

That snapped Cyborg out of it, no pun intended.

"Right. Come on!" Cyborg said, as he turned and ran for the door.

He'd work out these problems later, there were other problems that demanded a solution.

* * *

"Man." Juryrig said. "I'm no math expert, but I've got to be putting at least several tons of pressure on you and you're still resisting it. That's either one strong talent, or you've developed it really well." 

Savior didn't reply. All he knew was pain.

"Hmmmm. Kinda funny." Juryrig said. "I thought I'd do fairly well, but this? The man who helped beat the Lord of the Night, Whim, the Sorceress, and god knows how many other villains? The man whose hand slew Trigon the Terrible? Either you've been slowing down Savior, or your rep is far greater then your…"

A blast of sonic power slammed into Juryrig's back, nearly knocking him off his perch with a scream.

Savior felt the pressure go from murderous to merely terrible.

"It's not HIS rep you should be worried about." Cyborg said.

"It's ours." Beast Boy replied.

"Because the team's not called Savior and Co…" Terra added.

"But the Titans." Scalpel said.

And Gauntlet would have made a smart aleck comment here if he still weren't stuck under the rubble.

"GO!" Cyborg ordered, and the team surged forward.

Juryrig leapt from his perch onto his creation and ran to the back to get out of the line of fire.

So the Titans used T4 as a target instead. Cyborg charged up and fired another powerful blast of his sonic cannon into the creature's chest, and then Terra slammed a large rock into the back of the creature. The feedback slammed into Juryrig and he recoiled, and the pressure on Savior lightened once more…just as Beast Boy rammed his elephant head and Scalpel delivered a powerful leaping thrust kick to the underside of the monster.

Juryrig nearly fell off.

The jaws loosened to barely any pressure.

And Savior's eyes snapped open as he opened up a line to his deepest reserves.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

And Savior stood up and shoved out, breaking the jaws right off the body as dozens and dozens of Shimmer lines sprang from his back, piercing through every part of T4 and then pulled it apart, yanking the dog golem into a thousand pieces and hurling a screaming Juryrig off his back and across and down to the street behind the destroyed creation.

As it collapsed into ruins once more, Savior fell to the street, landed, and flipped over to the side of Cyborg, and as if it was a cue all the Titans seemingly struck a pose as a giant flaming T appeared behind them.

Then Savior collapsed.

"Ack! Savior!" Cyborg said, as the T fizzled out, shrank, and disappeared. Scalpel darted over to Savior's side.

"Noel? Are you ok?" Terra asked, leaning down.

Savior's hand snapped up, grabbed Terra's shirt, and pulled her down to look him in the eye.

"DON'T USE REAL NAMES IN THE FIELD." Savior snarled, and then let Terra go.

"I'm no doctor, but I say he has an extreme case of crankiness." Beast Boy said.

"Remark about my crankiness later! I'm just tired! Hive still there! Arrest them! Etc etc!" Savior said, as he tried to get up.

"Ugghhhhh…" Juryrig said as he got up to one knee. He didn't feel much better then Savior. "Damn. I was told not to underestimate them and I did it anyway, damn it."

"Don't beat yourself up too much, those fraggin' Titans are always pulling last second turnarounds out of their asses." Gizmo said as he floated down next to Juryrig.

"You ok?"

"I'm out of weapon packs! That cruddin' blonde slammed me into a building and I lost them all! Why don't you remake the snot monster and tear the Titans a new one?"

"Let's see how much fight you have left in you after you've had the rough experience of having your body torn apart, TWICE." Juryrig grunted. "I'm just about at the end of my rope: I probably couldn't form anything larger then a suitcase."

"Well I'm open to suggestions." Jinx said as she suddenly appeared from a nearby alleyway, startling the two HIVE members. "Considering the Titans are getting up and looking ready to finish this."

"Snot! Where the crud…" Gizmo said, and then the ground rumbled beneath him. He turned, suddenly feeling a bit better as some backup had arrived…

And then suddenly feeling a lot worse as Floral emerged from the ground with an unconscious Mammoth and Platinum Blonde carefully held in vines.

"Guys! Our tankers are down! What do we do?" Floral asked, her eyes wild with fright.

"Yep, definitely getting up to finish this." Jinx commented as Savior had regained his feet and the Titans headed for the HIVE.

"Aw man! We can't go! We didn't get a single Washington!" Gizmo cursed.

"Hmmmm, jail, getting cursed out by Blood, jail, getting cursed out by Blood…I'll take Blood. At least with him you know they'll be no anal violation." Juryrig commented.

"As much as I hate to admit it you have a cruddin' point." Gizmo said, as he produced two small orbs from his pocket. "You ready Jules?"

"They're in the right place." Juryrig said, as the Titans, now running at the HIVE, were racing over what was left of his fallen creation. And while he lacked the strength to reanimate it, he could still use it for one last trick.

"Ninja vanish!" Gizmo said, and threw the orbs.

Cyborg raised his arm to blast them.

Juryrig thrust out an arm.

And all the wreckage that had composed T4 suddenly exploded, not in terms of an incendiary style but rather every single non-metallic item suddenly bursting into dust, dust which immediately covered the Titans, and then Gizmo's bombs flew in and exploded, releasing a special chemical that immediately turned the dust into a thick, noxious fog that reduced vision to roughly one inch. The Titans immediately began choking on the concoction, a state that lasted long enough for the HIVE members to run up and touch Floral's plant structure.

By the time Cyborg armed up a fan and blew the foul miasma away, the HIVE were long gone. Examination just revealed a hole in the ground where Floral had emerged: Floral herself and co had vanished.

"Well, that was…" Terra began to comment, before Savior reared back with a "SON OF A BITCH!" and punched a nearby lamppost.

"Guys! What on earth was that?" Savior half yelled at the Titans, who blinked.

"Uh…could we be a little more specific…?" Beast Boy asked.

"What in the hell were you doing? Really? I mean….UHHHHHH!" Savior said, throwing up his arms. His brain piped up, reminding him to stay calm, not to drill sergeant his teammates, he was just the co-leader…but still, he was irritated.

"Ok guys, I will fully admit to possible hindsight bias here…" Savior said as he placed his thumb on his cheek and his fingers on his forehead, like he had a headache.

"Possible?" Terra asked.

"Oh none of that!" Savior said. "Cyborg, you are co leader, so I will ask, where were you when I requested aid?"

"Hey, we did save your butt N-Savior." Beast Boy said.

"And I'm grateful. However, I really must feel the need to point out that said butt saving came a fraction of a second away FROM MY CERTAIN DOOM!"

"Isn't that how it's SUPPOSED to be?" Scalpel asked.

"NO! YES!….ARGH! For me, preferably no!" Savior said. "Cyborg?"

"He was fighting with Jinx, he had an accident, I saved him. Really." Beast Boy said.

"Uh, yeah. That's what happened." Cyborg said, not wanting to admit the truth. "I was shut down."

"Ah, so you might not have heard me. Ok. Good job saving him BB, but really, I must point out you ran out and left the rest of your teammates in the lurch to do so!"

"What? No way! I yelled what I was doing! At you! Terra heard me! I bet she saw me too!" Beast Boy said, pointing to Terra, who nodded rapidly.

"You yelled at me. Did you see me give you a sign that I approved of this choice? Or did you just assume that a lack of a sign in a negative way was approval enough and take off?" Savior asked.

"Uh…well…um…"

"Ugh. Beast Boy. We're a team. We can't go running off in separate directions. Divide and conquer is what leads to most of the defeats of teams. And speaking of defeat, Terra, really, what were you doing with that Floral girl?"

"Um, fighting her?"

"Exactly! Fighting someone with a power that your power CLEARLY had difficulty against! You should have switched off, if not immediately, then when I ordered you to! You shouldn't have tried to fight her again! What, did you think she'd have magically gotten weaker?"

"Ummmm…" Terra said.

"Never mind. And Scalpel, you're one of the most dependable people I know. Was your communicator broken?"

"Hey, how come he gets the soft questions?" Beast Boy asked.

"Because Scalpel's clearly proven he'll crawl over broken glass to help us. Since he didn't show up, I…"

"Mammoth insulted Sophie." Scalpel said quietly, as he looked down at his claws, his two primary fingers clicking together in the way some people move their hands when they feel embarrassed in retrospect. "I had to take the time to show him the error of his ways."

Silence.

"Ok…" Savior said. "I understand the need, but Scalpel…it's the time issue that is the irritant. Considering certain things…did you have to take quite so long to show him said error?"

"How about you ask me the next time someone calls Raven a slut or a whore or a s…" Scalpel said, as he folded his arms and looked cross. As mentioned, when it came to Sophie, he didn't budge.

"Ok ok ok! Still…really." Savior said. And then he finally noticed it.

"Oh great, where's Gauntlet? If he's not still buried he better get here, because if he's hiding to avoid a tongue lashing…"

"And I'm so glad you're safe too." Came Gauntlet's voice from behind the group. They turned.

Gauntlet was there…slung over the shoulder of Batgirl, who was helping him a bit with his walking.

"Never mind me. Getting buried under a few tons of rubble is relaxing. Really, look at my skin." Gauntlet indicated.

"Hey dude, the last time I tried to dig you out you punched me in the face!" Beast Boy complained.

"What?" Terra yelled. "You actually punched Gar? In the face?"

"Actually I think it was more in the chest and lower torso…" Cyborg said, and then Cyborg and Beast Boy began to talk over each other as they each tried to convince everyone their version was the accurate one before Savior told them to knock it off.

"You punched him in the face?" Terra said afterward, prompting a glare from Savior as he walked around the group, his face softening as he realized who was with Gauntlet.

"Ahhhhh, Cassandra." Savior said as he approached the dark-clad teenage girl, making a few of the Titans do a double take at the calm kindness in his voice. "Oracle said you might be coming here, but I didn't expect it would be so soon."

"Good day Savior." Batgirl said quietly.

"Hey wait a minute! What about "don't use real names in the field" for HER?" Terra complained. Savior looked wryly at the blonde.

"Her father is one of the world's greatest assassins. I'd like to see them TRY to seek revenge through him." Savior said. "In any case, welcome back to Jump City Batgirl. You can stop supporting Gauntlet now, he's nearly impossible to hurt with such pedestrian things as rubble and he most likely is just leaning on you because he's so starved for female contact."

"Hey!" Gauntlet yelled. Despite her face being completely covered in a mask, Batgirl did managed to convey an expression of mild confusion with an undertone of alarm, as she slipped her shoulder out from under Gauntlet's arm, revealing that he could indeed stand on his own.

"Savior!" He grouched.

"Are you complaining because I insulted your supposed class or because I foiled your little scheme?" Savior asked. Gauntlet didn't answer, as he headed over to the other Titans.

"So Batgirl, why are you here?" Cyborg asked.

"I was on a mission of Oracle's, it ended sooner then expected, and my partner's boyfriend showed up and I figure I was a…what is that expression…about wheels…"

"Third wheel." Savior said.

"Third wheel. So I decided that since Jump City was nearby I would drop by for a little bit. By the way, I arrived during the battle: I disabled the metal girl before I aided Gauntlet in his escape."

"You did? Well thank you. Well, besides that, I guess I'll do introductions. You know Cyborg and Beast Boy…"

"Aren't you hot in that?" Beast Boy asked, indicating Batgirl's full body outfit, as it was midday in Florida.

"Self cooling." Batgirl replied.

"Man you Bat guys get ALL the cool toys." Beast Boy said. "Why can't I get a personal air conditioned suit?"

"Because it would shred the second you transformed into a larger form. It's also why you can't wear body armor. Much to my annoyance." Savior said.

"Hey, what IS that suit made of Gar?" Terra asked.

"Unstable molecules?" Gauntlet suggested.

Savior slapped him on the back of the head.

"Ow!"

"Quiet, we don't need to get sued Mr. Wrong Universe." Savior said. "Anyway, this is Terra, the guy you carried is Gauntlet, and over here is Scalpel. Titans, this is Cassandra Cain, Batgirl."

There was a brief exchange of helloes.

"Ok, now that that is settled, you came at a somewhat awkward time Batgirl. Now Gauntlet, about your…" Savior said as he began to bring up Gauntlet's part in the battle…and realized he didn't have much of a base for once. "Come to think of it, you didn't really do anything wrong."

Gauntlet stared.

"You mean you're NOT blaming me for something?"

"Well maybe you could have been a little more careful but this is about…" Savior said, and then found Gauntlet poking him with his yellow energy power. "Ha ha. Quit it."

"Really, they must have swapped him for this clone at speeds the Flash would be impressed by."

"QUIT IT!"

"Hey wait, why does Gauntlet get an out? He shouldn't have been knocked out by rubble!" Beast Boy complained again

"Yeah, his head should be too thick." Terra joked. Gauntlet pretended to be deeply upset.

"Oh Terra! I trained you, taught you everyone I knew, took you on cool adventures, and you start to act like Savior? ET TU, BRUTE?" Gauntlet said. "Someone catch me." He added, and fell backwards dramatically…and landed on the pavement with a thud. "That was a really lousy catch."

"You see what I have to put up with here?" Savior said to Batgirl as an aside.

"Young Justice was similarly…chaotic. It's why I left." Batgirl said. "Your city is also a nice place to visit, but I do not think I want to live here."

"So you'd rather live in a gloomy dark city filled with psychopaths? Girlfriend, your priorities are seriously messed up." Terra commented.

"Ok ok…still a problem to be dealt with. But before I go on…"

"You're still not blaming me for anything?" Gauntlet asked.

"ARGH! Fine! Gauntlet, you had a roof fall on you! Don't do it again! There! Happy?"

"Well no but all IS right in the universe…"

"Actually no, it isn't. The issue here is that when I needed aid, none was forthcoming, and outside factors aside, that troubles me. So, I think a step is necessary. First, is anyone injured?"

"My old chest wound was opened again, but it's already clotted." Scalpel muttered. "My examinations of everyone else have revealed pretty much just bumps and bruises."

"Good. Because I feel we need to get back to our roots as a team…"

Everyone groaned.

"Hey, at least wait until I say what I'm going to say!"

"Cyborg you're co-leader. Veto him or something." Beast Boy said.

"I'll hear him out first."

More groans.

"Thank you Cyborg. Anyway, in regards to this, I have decided we will be doing mild training drills tomorrow…"

Louder groans.

"Veto, veto." Beast Boy chanted.

"MILD training drills!" Savior stated. "We need to refresh our teamwork, just a bit!"

"'Into what danger would you lead me, Cassius, that you would have me seek for myself, for that which is not in me?'" Gauntlet quoted.

Everyone stared.

"What the hell?" Beast Boy finally said.

"Shakespeare. The original meaning was Cassius was flattering Brutus in his play _Julius Caesar,_ and Brutus was having none of it. In this case, I mean 'Why are you making me work harder to unleash potential I may not have'? And considering Savior's acting like sole leader, the first line made sense."

"You have anything to say Cyborg?" Savior asked.

"I'll defer for now Savior." Cyborg replied. More groans and a few cries of "Mutiny, mutiny."

"Look Gauntlet, everyone, this isn't about unleashing potential. This is about refreshing our skills so the next time we have an incident like this it won't end with ALL THE BAD GUYS GETTING AWAY." Savior said.

"Et TU, hardass?" Gauntlet replied.

"You'll survive a brief run and a few training drills. It'll be beneficial."

"To us or your continued need for a rep as a hardass?" Gauntlet replied.

"'But let not therefore my good friends be grieved-Among which Cassius, be you one, Nor construe any further my neglect, than that poor Brutus, with himself at war, forgets the shows of love to other men.'" Savior fired off. "You're talking to the original quoter here Rob."

"So what, you're pissed because Raven's away?"

Savior's palm slapped into his face as he realized that his quote could indeed be interpreted that way.

"If you were one of my good friends, MAYBE!" Savior snapped. "Ok, in any case, mild drills tomorrow, Cyborg, do you veto?"

"….Actually, it might be a good idea." Cyborg said, though he seemed distracted, and Savior wondered while the other Titans booed if Savior could have asked Cyborg for his power cell and Cyborg would have agreed to hand it over. His brow narrowed a bit: he really had to get to the bottom of this. Cyborg was the co-leader because Savior fully admitted he tended to make a lousy single leader.

"Ok, Cyborg agrees, it's settled, complain all you want…" Savior said, and that set off a storm of complaints, coming mostly from Gauntlet, Terra, and Beast Boy.

"Is it always like this for you?" Batgirl asked.

"Far more then I would like." Savior replied, and then his ears pricked as sirens started. "Ok, police are here, let's go tell them why we did all this property damage for nothing and then we can go home."

"Er, can you do the talking for that Savior?" Terra asked.

"Oh, now you WANT me to talk…" Savior said.

"Good you agree! Race you all home guys!" Gauntlet said, and fired off a Gauntlet line that he swung off on, quickly followed by Beast Boy and Terra. Within seconds all three were gone.

"Ackh. Ingrates." Savior muttered in his best Groundskeeper Willie. "Well Batgirl, do you wish to accompany them or…"

"I will stay with you for now. I do not believe their…habits would intermesh well with mine, especially alone." Batgirl said.

"Probably a good idea. Cyborg?"

"I'm with you too."

"Ok then. Let's try and only give the police enough so that the inevitable leaks to the press will just let them trash us for two or so pages rather then five or six."

"Trash? The papers insult you? Considering things would be far worse if you did nothing?" Batgirl said.

"I'll say it again. Ackh. Ingrates."

"Amen to that." Cyborg muttered, as if he hadn't heard the comment at all.

* * *

"Man…stupid alien. It's not my fault he's such a freak only some fat cow will screw him." Mammoth complained. 

"_Oui._ I do not know what that Batgirl did, but whatever it was she cheated. _Chienne_." Platinum Blonde spat, and for the twelfth time took out a hand mirror to examine herself.

"You look fine! Stupid…" Gizmo muttered the last word.

"What did you say?"

"Enough guys. Let's not fight amongst ourselves. EVERY so-called villain team loses because they fight amongst themselves. Let's try and be the exception, ok?" Juryrig said. He noticed Floral was nervously stroking her upper arms. "You ok Rose?"

"Julian…we failed our first mission. What if Danielle's angry?" Floral said worridly.

"Relax Rose. I doubt Scorcher will be angry at you. You did everything you could. Blood on the other hand…I doubt he'll be so reasonable." Juryrig said.

"He'll hit the ceiling is what he'll do." Jinx said from her position of leaning against a tree.

"Well maybe for you. Where were you Llarenes?" Mammoth asked.

"Yeah. You disappeared. _Qu'est vers le haut avec celui?_" Platinum Blonde said.

"ENGLISH, Antoinette."

"What's up with that?"

"Unlike you and Baran here…" Jinx said, indicating Mammoth. "I don't shrug off going through brick walls very well. So forgive me if I wasn't up and rarin' to help out. Plus I had that metal Titan to deal with. I almost had him, but then his green friend showed up and I had to retreat." Jinx said. She though it was a pretty good lie.

"Stop yakkin' snotmunchers, our ride is here." Gimzo said. From the sky in the forest outside Jump City where Floral had brought them where they had called for extraction came a shape that would have sent UFO freaks screaming for their computers. Except this was no saucer but a floating platform, about twenty or so feet in diameter, done in the classic HIVE honeycomb style and powered by an arrangement of jets underneath. It was a simple enough device to send out and pick up people to take back to the HIVE's new base, though it wasn't much fun on the last leg of the journey. But that was the price of failure, Jinx supposed.

"Shall we get our stories straight?" Juryrig asked.

"Won't matter. Blood's incorrigible. I just hope he'll be busy when we arrive so we won't be summoned immediately. I want to check on my sister." Mammoth said. Juryrig sighed.

"Baran, I know you're protective of Selinda, and she is new, but she's also a metahuman herself. Chances are if you keep coddling her…" Juryrig trailed off as he suddenly found his head between Mammoth's very large thumb and forefinger. "Then again, you are her brother. You probably know best."

"Baran, stop threatening to squish Julian's head. For all we know he could be our boss soon, you want to be on his bad side?" Jinx said, as the platform lowered down to the ground.

"Our boss? Ha! That'll be the day!" Gizmo said.

"Probably a soon to come day." Platinum Blonde said.

"Hey! Shaddup ya bimbo!"

_"Miniature asexuee Idiot-parlante!_"

"Stop it! Both of you!" Juryrig ordered. He was good at it too: Gizmo and Platinum Blonde stopped arguing and sulked away.

"See what I mean?" Jinx said to Mammoth, who nodded with a low grunt.

Juryrig walked over and pressed several buttons to program the platform to take them back to the HIVE base. He frowned at something.

"Mikron, come here."

"Oh wait, has the great lead graduate forget how to press the pretty buttons?" Gizmo mocked as he floated over on his jetpack.

"Our weight's reading wrong."

"What, we can't take off?"

"No. But I've seen our combined weights on this thing before and this is a few hundred pounds over it."

"So?"

"Where did it come from?" Juryrig asked. Gizmo's eyes narrowed.

"Oh for snot's sake. Look around Julian! Do you see anyone except us?"

"This is hardly the most secure structure."

"It's hardly one that presents a lot of concealment options either! Let's see, you can hide…pretty much behind Mammoth! Is anyone behind you Baran?"

"…No." Mammoth said, as he did look behind him.

"Oh wait, maybe someone's hanging on the side! Would everyone look on the sides?" Gizmo said. There was indeed no one hanging onto the side. "So what now Mr. New Graduate Leader?"

"Maybe they're invisible."

"Are you speaking crud?"

"Why don't you flip on your special goggles and see for certain Mikron?"

"GIMZO! Don't call me that. Lousy pitsniffing barfeater…" Gizmo said as he snapped the goggles on and hit some buttons on his chest. "Now in infra red! No snots but the ones I know! What the heck, motion detectors! Holy moly, Antoinette's bouncy chest is going to overload my systems!"

_"Morceau repugnant de merde de chevre_…!"

"Antoinette, MIKRON, KNOCK IT OFF." Juryrig snapped.

"Fine! No other snotsniffers detected! Let's take off!" Gizmo said, and turned and hit the button to fully ignite the rockets. The platform began rising into the sky.

"There is one more place." Juryrig said. Gizmo looked at the black teen to see if he was serious.

"Really Julian, this time I mean it: DON'T BE SUCH A SNOT! Do you honestly think someone is hanging under our rocket IN THE FIRE?"

"You've seen some pretty strange things Gizmo. Not to mention, you are our only flier." Juryrig said. Gizmo stared, and then with a few more curses he flew off the platform and examined the underside for several seconds before he flew back up.

"No one is there!"

"You're certain?"

Gizmo smacked his head.

"Look GENIUS, and believe me I know whether that label applies or not because I am one, if there is someone on our ship, it is someone with the power to stick to solid objects, easily endure thousands of degrees of heat, and TURN INVISIBLE! Now what kind of a snoteating GOD could have ALL those powers?"

"…Yeah, I guess you're right. Must have been a glitch."

"Right on, smart guy!" Gizmo said as he set himself back down on the platform. "Now let's just go home! I've had enough bullplop for one day!"

And so the platform flew back to the HIVE base.

The people on never knowing the truth of a certain phrase.

Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there aren't really people after you.

As the Jackal smirked to himself.

"What kind, indeed."

_To be continued.  
_


	7. Little Boy Lost

Chapter 6: Little Boy Lost

The next day was hot and muggy, though not oppressively so. None the less, Noel had removed his jacket and found himself going through a bottle of water every half hour. If the training course didn't have water jets as part of its design, Noel wouldn't have run the drills today, but it did, so he did. The cold water kept the three Titans he was overseeing from complaining…at least about the heat.

"Not bad guys. Not bad at all." Noel said from his position. Titans Tower was situated on a small island, about a dozen acres or so of rocky terrain. The Tower had once been the labs of Silas Stone, Cyborg's father, but then again it hadn't been an island originally either. In the old, bad days, before the Titans, Jump City had actually been much larger and covered the area where the sea now flowed, However, that part of it had been badly run down and decrepit, a breeding ground for crime. Then came the battle that had formed the Titans, and the resulting explosion had vaporized the thankfully abandoned city area and 25 feet of the ground beneath it, and the ocean had rushed in to fill the gap. Silas's laboratories, due to the shielding defenses that lay within, had spared the building and the surrounding land that had become Titan Island, though the impact had burned out the shield and Victor had never been able to reconstruct it much to his annoyance, as his father had taken the knowledge with him to his grave. The labs were rebuilt into the Tower, which now stood guard over Jump City, a monument to the war that brought about the Titan age.

At least, that's the author's fanon. The point being was the island was fairly small, but still large enough to run training exercises, as all the other Titans grudgingly admitted. Noel was perched on a small cliff overhang looking down on the large flat training area, a bank of computers laid out around him. When not being used, the computers withdrew into the ground and hence prevented rain from ruining them, among other elements.

"Noel, damn it!" Rob cursed as he came out from behind the rock he had dove behind to finish Noel's previous exercise. "How many more of these do we have to do?"

"Two should suffice."

"Well, why don't you come down here and do them with us?"

"We need someone up here to run them. I COULD switch off with Cyborg, but then we'd have to do NINE more." Noel replied. Rob gaped, and then looked at his drill teammate Cyborg, who shrugged. Nigel was drinking water from a hose that Noel had separated from the defense machinery and set out to keep his teammates hydrated. "I mean, I DO know these drills backwards and forwards and inside and out, but then again knowing isn't the same as experience…"

"No no! I changed my mind! You stay up there!" Rob yelled. Noel smirked to himself.

"You sure?"

"YES!" Nigel yelled, having picked up the conversation via his big ears.

"Ok then. Let's start the final two." Noel said as he tapped rapidly at the computer bank. "This will be an assisting dodging exercise. You have to try and help each other dodge the attacks. And by that I mean helping the target, not shooting whatever's trying to hurt it."

"D'oh!" Came from Cyborg, who liked that tactic.

"I'll do three brief specific ones and then a wider general one, should take about two minutes overall." Noel said as he rapidly typed, his Shimmer letting him do a programming job that would have normally required at least two people. "Who wants to go first?"

"I'll go." Cyborg said, waving his hand in a "may as well volunteer" way.

"Ok then. Get ready guys…starting in five…four…three…" Noel said, and then like in television did not actually count off the last two numbers as he flipped open the switch and pressed the button. The exercise began, as the ground and rock walls opened up and high pressure hoses, disc throwers, stinging lasers, sudden pitfalls, and a few dozen other nasty but non lethal little toys began attacking the three Titans, who tried to assist Cyborg as the first volley was set to play against his weaknesses. Noel watched for a bit. Maybe he'd been too harsh yesterday: the teamwork skills of his friends seemed as sharp as ever. Perhaps it could be written off to bad luck. If so, Noel decided he'd volunteer to let his fellows run him through a few training exercises when this was done and hope they didn't abuse him TOO much…

Motion out of the corner of his eye caught his attention, and a moment later a thoroughly exhausted Gar and Tara came jogging around the corner of a rock, Tara slightly leading the way before the two of them collapsed on an inflated mat laid out on the ground.

"DYING!" Gar gasped out, his voice a rasp.

"You're not dying." Noel replied, as he turned his head and began rummaging through the large barrel of ice filled with water bottles.

"YES I AM!"

"You've nearly been eviscerated Gar. That's nearly dying. This is just pain." Noel said as he retrieved two waters and glanced at the training course as Cyborg's portion wrapped up. "GAUNTLET NEXT!" He yelled, specifying which Titan the course was specifically targeted to next, and then trotted over to his two exhausted comrades, offering the water, which was immediately snatched and opened.

"Noel…this is…beyond…not fair!" Tara gasped out, as she struggled with the cap on the bottle.

"Hardly Tara. I've given you both a very generous time limit, and resting periods between each island lap. I can't control the weather, and as for your fatigue, it's not my fault you've been neglecting your stamina and 'normalcy' training." Noel said, and then noticed that Terra's hands were still furiously struggling with the cap of the water bottle. "Having a blonde moment?"

"Oh FUCK YOU!" Tara snapped, as she waved a hand and pulled a sharp rock to her, holding the water bottle up so the top was sliced off, as she promptly dumped the whole bottle on her face. Noel noted that Tara's decision to pick black for her top color was probably smarter then he thought, considering it was soaked through with sweat and now water.

"More!" She gasped. Noel sent off a few Shimmer strands and grabbed several more water bottles, giving them to a grateful Tara and Gar, even as he glanced at the training area: he figured that his teammates were smart enough to use the process of elimination to figure out who was the final individual. Tara greedily chugged down another water bottle and opened another.

"Careful, it'll go down the wrong tube." Noel said. Tara glared around the bottle and gave Noel the finger. Noel let it pass.

"Dude…isn't this enough? Can't you say we've…been punished?" Gar asked.

"It's rules Gar. Sometimes they can be bent, sometimes it's best not to."

"You wouldn't say that if you were running the laps!" Tara snapped.

"Oh? You want me to join you again for your final run?"

Tara's eyes widened. The first run had been watched by Noel via flying cameras, and his constant catching of Gar and Tara trying to take shortcuts, both via powers and via the island, and his chastising of them over speakers in the cameras, had annoyed the two of them so much that they had demanded he run the next lap with them. Big mistake, as Noel had run behind him snapping Shimmer whips at their rears and setting a much faster pace then they had wanted. He was nice enough to let them rest twenty minutes afterward, but they still had to run the last three, which they did with some gratitude with Noel not running behind them like a drill sergeant. Still, two MORE laps around the island, with the weather having gotten progressively muggier, could tire out anyone, and if Tara did have to run one more with Gar, she didn't want Noel and his insane cardiovascular conditioning in the mix.

"No no! I'm fine!"

"Ok then. The Tent's finally up. Go rest in that for a bit." Noel said, gesturing to an inflated clear tent that was attached to the Tower's air conditioning. The two Titans got up and staggered over to the structure.

They were opening the door when Noel heard the bellow, and he swung his head back to the training area to see Nigel flying off into the distance. By the time he realized what had happened Nigel was already on a downward arc, disappearing behind a rock shelf.

"Shit!" Noel cursed, as he hit the emergency shutdown button on the training course even as he pulled out his communicator. "Nigel! Are you ok?" He yelled into it, more to check and make sure Nigel hadn't landed in the water then if he was hurt. Nigel could live with falling a few dozen feet onto sand or rocks, but Nigel in water was always a bad thing: Blacktrinians were prone to drowning.

Static for an answer.

"Nigel!"

A groan came from the communicator. Noel couldn't help but smile: that was Nigel for you. Even in pain he'd still do something stupid like answering a hail.

"I take it that means you landed on something solid."

"Too solid for my tastes." Nigel muttered.

"Can you walk?"

"Most likely."

"Are you dying?"

"Despite what I feel, probably not."

"Ok, try and get back here as soon as possible."

"Uh, did I say ok? I was wrong. I'm badly hurt. I'll need someone to come over here and carry me."

"I don't think so."

"But I'm dying!"

"Continue dying. Over." Noel said to end their little joke exchange and closed the communicator. "Ok, what happened?"

"Um…well I was over HERE…" Gauntlet said, as he pointed. "And Nigel was over THERE, and I said we should go THERE, but I think he misheard and went THERE, and then something attacked him and he went THERE, and I would have gone THERE except I was HERE and I couldn't get THERE fast and then next thing I knew Nigel was over THERE and then he was Superman." Gauntlet said, waving his pointing arms around so fast it was a wonder he didn't tie himself into a knot. Noel rolled his eyes.

"Now Rob, remember how I was talking about miscommunication? Don't you think I was on to something?"

"Oh come on! I don't have eyes in the back of my head!"

"True. Maybe you need to develop them. Well, since Nigel's not there, I guess you two will have to do the last training exercise alone. Stay there and rest for a moment while I reprogram it for two combatants." Noel said, ignoring the groan and Rob as he began pestering Cyborg to veto Noel again. Noel rapidly typed for a few seconds and then went back to the cliff edge.

"The drill is starting in ten seconds! I suggest you prepare your head instead of practicing your tongue!"

"What? Noel, that's a terrible metaphor! You should be the one practicing your tongue-ACK!" Gauntlet yelled as water hoses shot up from behind him and nearly caught him in the back with two high-pressure streams.

"Raven never complained." Noel muttered, very quietly, to himself, as he walked back to the computer banks, glancing over to the Tent where Tara and Gar lay, nearly motionless. He'd give them several more minutes, as he walked back over to the cliff edge and watched his two remaining teammates. The Nigel slip-up aside, they were still on the ball. Though Noel was having second thoughts of letting them put him through some training drills.

He sensed her coming, so he felt no need to look back, instead keeping his eye on Rob and Victor. A few seconds later, Cassandra joined him by his side. Noel glanced briefly at her: she was out of full costume, only wearing her pants and boots and with a loose black T-shirt on her torso. Cassandra Cain, behind her completely concealing mask, was a fairly attractive Japanese girl, though she usually had a serious, solemn expression. Noel couldn't blame her. Her father was David Cain, one of the world's greatest assassins, and he had not looked upon Cassandra as his daughter but rather an experiment: if a child trained from birth was not taught any notions of language, she would come to see violence as a language in and of itself. This training was what contributed to Cassandra's supreme martial arts skills: she could read body language like a book, often knowing exactly what a person could do before they did it. However, this talent had come with a dear cost: Cassandra had fled her father after he had given her her first killing assignment, the act of murder proving horrendous to her, and due to his insane raising she had never learned to speak, not even in the most basic sense. Indeed, even after she had come to Gotham, where Batman had discovered her and taken her under his wing, she still had not learned to talk: it had taken a psychic rewiring her brain to grant her the power of speech, and it had come with another cost: Cassandra lost a majority of her combat talent. She had only managed to regain it after she had tracked down Lady Shiva, a female martial artist who had been considered the greatest in the world before she met Batgirl. Shiva had offered to retrain Batgirl in exchange if Batgirl met her for a duel to the death a year later. Cassandra had accepted (her rationale was it was better to be perfect for a year then mediocre for a lifetime), and Shiva had retrained her within a night.

They had met for that duel a year later.

Noel didn't know the details, but he knew this: no one had ever bested Lady Shiva in hand to hand in her lifetime. Not even Batman.

Cassandra walked away the victor, and with it the title of greatest martial artist in the world.

It was a title well earned, even if the forge that had made her still had costs. Cassandra was still illiterate, unable to read and write, and she had great difficulty connecting with people, especially people her own age. When Young Justice had formed during the wake of the Final Night, Batgirl had been a member, but she had quickly felt out of place and left. Noel couldn't blame her. She was a lonely soul by birthright. He knew all too well what that was like.

"Training is almost done?" She asked.

"Pretty much."

"That Sophie girl will not be joining you?"

"No. She's a live in, not a Titan. She might have a special power but she'd much rather be a mortician and undertaker then be going around and fighting villains." Noel replied. Sophie did indeed have a special power: she could transform her limbs and if necessary her whole body into a flock of bats. However, the power didn't have much use besides allowing her some flight and transportation abilities that weren't available to the average Joe. Noel has inquired a few times if Sophie wanted any kind of training, but she had always turned him down.

"Robin called. He was rather surprised to see me." Cassandra said.

"Not easy to slip stuff past Tim."

"He said he and the others might be home soon, but don't be planning any dates."

"Understood."

"You are not training with them?"

"If I may be arrogant, I feel that it was their deficiencies, if I may call it that, that need addressing rather then mine."

"You didn't completely succeed. That does sound arrogant."

"Well, I wish it didn't, but Cyborg hasn't been holding up his end in the co-leader position. Something's occupying his thoughts, and I haven't figured out either what it is or a way to ask him that doesn't sound like prying. So until he comes around or I do, I have to be the guiding hand. Some of my allies may disagree with such leadership, but they all know in the end that I will bring them home alive…"

And then Noel snapped off a fist at Cassandra.

To a casual outsider, it would have seemed like the perfect surprise blow. Noel had given seemingly no indication of what he would do: one instant he had been casually standing and the next he was throwing out his fist at Cassandra's head.

Completely out of nowhere…

For a casual observer.

The fist flew into Batgirl's hands, and in a movement so quick and so fluid that anyone observing would have just seen a blur, Cassandra spun behind Noel, yanking his arm up behind him even as she let go with one hand and fired off two lightning quick and insanely precise strikes which produced low hollow snapping noises as she dislocated both his shoulder and his elbow, inflicting the injuries so fast that the pain of both disarticulations hit him seemingly at the same time, as Noel let out a howling snarl of a scream and fell to one knee, Cassandra gently propping his arm, now with extra corners, up behind him.

"That was foolish Noel." She said quietly.

"Dude! What's going on?" Gar said, as he and Tara were suddenly out of the tent and ready to go on the attack, and out of the corner of his eye Noel saw that Victor and Rob had also seen the supposed "attack" and had started heading up the cliff.

"Hey! What gives?" Tara asked, as her eyes started to glow.

"No! No! Stand down! No need!" Noel snapped out, as he waved his arm at the couple, whose angry confusion transformed itself into utter confusion.

"Noel, what happened?" Gar asked.

"He attempted to get the drop on me. He failed, and learned the price of such an act. The fault was all his: do not blame me." Cassandra said quietly.

"You haven't…lost a step…Cassandra." Noel said as he slowly stood up. As if on cue, Cassandra let go of his arm as several Shimmer strands flowed up to brace it. "Not…a single…" Noel said, as he adjusted the strands and then let out another wordless snarl of pain as the lines of energy snapped his elbow back into place. "INCH!" He almost howled as the Shimmer readjusted itself and snapped Savior's shoulder back into place as well.

"I take it the dislocations were clean?" Cassandra asked, as Gar and Tara just stared in confused disbelief at the curious scene.

"Expertly." Noel replied, as he flexed and rotated his arm, checking to make sure everything was back in working order. "Before you go, you and I have to have a sparring session or two."

"Gladly. With your powers or without?"

"Without of course."

"That may not be the wisest course of action." Cassandra said, giving the very faintest hint of a smile.

"I'm smart enough to know when to be done. It's not like I swore to beat you."

"Beat her? Ha! If she can take you apart like that when you're trying to blindside her, you probably would be kissing the floor before she even had to take a step face to face!" Tara laughed, both reveling in a not exactly shared but still there in some senses girl power moment and letting out a little steam at the frustration she felt that Noel was such a stickler for rules that he had made her boyfriend and her run around the island in such unpleasant weather.

The wry look Noel gave her made her quickly realize that maybe she should have kept her mouth shut, but it was too late for that, as Noel's features quickly morphed into a visage of sardonic amusement.

"Oh REALLYYYYYYYY." Noel said.

"Uh oh." Gar replied.

"Uh well…maybe we…" Tara said, as she gestured behind her.

"Oh wait wait Miss Markov. Don't go yet. Not after such a claim. I suppose you could do better?" Noel asked.

"Well uh…"

"But wait! You were so eager to brag about your hand to hand yesterday! Why be humble now?"

"Noel there's a difference between a scared kid and a martial arts prodigy…"

"Ah yes, but perhaps you should have noted that difference…a little earlier!" Noel said. "But hey Tara, you train with Tim right?"

"Uh…"

"You haven't been…NEGLECTING your sessions have you?"

"Um…"

"But all the same, it wouldn't be fair without a handicap. So tell you what…" Noel said, as he took a few steps to the side and began drawing in the ground with a Shimmer strand. "Cassandra, would you mind donating your talents?"

"I see nothing better to do." Cassandra said. There might have been the very slight hint of sadistic glee some teenagers got when they realized they could show someone a few things, carefully tempered through intense maturity and gravity but still there. Tara gulped.

"Here's the rules Tara." Noel said as he finished making the circle. "One on one, no powers. If you can even GRAZE Cassandra, you don't have to run the last lap. If you can actually land a decent blow, you and Gar can run me around the island TEN times, floating on one of Tara's rocks. Sound fair?"

"Uh…can I have a blindfold?" Tara jokingly asked.

"If you insist." Cassandra said as she produced a black blindfold from somewhere and began tying it around her eyes. Tara stared.

"Tara, you may have a chance now! Just be careful and pick your spot!" Gar encouraged. Tara glanced around nervously.

"You could always run around the island and forget about giving me combat advice." Noel said in a perfect needle. Tara's eyes narrowed slightly, and she stepped into the circle.

"Whoo! Go Tara! Go Tara!" Gar cheerleaded as Tara nervously stepped around Cassandra, who stayed in one place, her head cocked slightly. Noel stepped back, crossed his arms, and waited.

"Ok, how did this go from a seeming sneak attack to a sun splashed version of _Fight Club_?" Rob asked as he and Victor, having finally made it up the cliff, joined Noel's side.

"Don't talk about Fight Club." Noel joked, as Tara continued to creep around the stock-still Cassandra. Noel gave Tara some credit: her nervous apprehension hadn't left her. She wasn't getting cocky at her handicap. Maybe she had been taking some of her training seriously after all.

"I tested Cassandra's reflexes, I failed, Tara joked, and here we are." Noel said, before either of them could ask the question again.

"Oh. Can I place bets?" Rob asked.

"No."

"Awwww, why not?"

"Because this is already over." Noel said, as Tara finally picked her spot, snuck ahead a few steps, tiptoed a few inches over, zig-zagged a bit, and then, with nary a sound, sprang forward and punched for the side of Cassandra's head.

Even Noel didn't see the movement. One moment Cassandra was standing and Tara was punching, and the next Cassandra was up against Tara, her outstretched fingers a millimeter from Tara's throat, Tara's eyes as wide as saucers as she was stopped in mid blow.

"Your throat's crushed. You're dead." Cassandra said. While she abhorred the act of killing, she had no problem telling Tara exactly what WOULD have happened if this had been a real fight and she WAS inclined in such a direction. Tara stared another second, then dropped her arms and sulked her way out of the makeshift ring as Cassandra pulled the blindfold off.

"Aw man…hey! Can I try?" Gar asked.

"You WANT to?" Noel asked. Gar hesitated, then looked at his saddened girlfriend and then strode into the ring.

"Hold on Gar. Maybe we should change the rules for you. How many times have you actually fought in your human form?"

"What? Uh…" Gar said, as he tried to remember and realized it had been a long long time. If ever.

"Ok Gar. Pick a form. Same rules for you: you graze her you win, you land a blow and PLEASE keep your form in mind, you really win, and let's say Cassandra wins if she knocks you down?" Noel asked.

"I can live with those rules." Cassandra said.

"Heh. Ok then lady, time for some payback." Gar said as he changed into a fair sized gorilla. He figured this was best: gorillas were similar enough to humans that he had enough fine control to keep him from hurting Cassandra when/if he hit her, they had great balance, and they could take incredible pain, so even if she punched and kicked him several times he'd probably still be up.

"If you think so." Cassandra replied.

"Ready…go!"

Doing the opposite of Tara's cautious approach, Gar charged forward as he swung both his long arms out, the hands held open so if he did connect he'd just slap Cassandra rather then punch her.

Cassandra ducked under the blows, spun to the side, and before Gar knew what had hit him she'd snapped her leg up and buried it in his chest. The blow seemed to ripple through Gar for a second, as if there was a pause for dramatic effect…and then Gar fell to the ground, changing back to human in mid fall as he curled up in the fetal position, clutching his chest.

"GAR!" Tara screamed, running into the ring and over to him.

"Ohhhhhh…" Gar groaned, as the other Titans looked worried, Cassandra included, as she walked over and knelt down.

"Can you breathe?"

"Hurts…"

"I apologize. Let me check." Cassandra said, as she managed to pry one of Gar's arms away and felt along his stomach and lower chest. "I feel no broken bones or torn muscles. I hit your solar plexus: your pain and weakness will pass soon."

"Hey! Why'd you hit him so hard!" Tara snapped.

"I assumed that with a such a large form and with my knowledge of simian anatomy far from perfect, that my attack would merely be disabling and not agonizing. It appears I guessed correctly in where to strike and incorrectly on how much force I needed. I apologize again." Cassandra said.

"Dude…I don't think Whim hit me that hard." Gar complained, though the color was back in his face: he was clearly already recovering.

"It is merely precision." Cassandra said, as she stepped back a bit.

"Noel, do we STILL have to run the last lap?" Tara asked, hoping that maybe with a somewhat hurt Gar Noel might be nice.

"I don't know Tara. Rules are rules and bargains are bargains…"

"Hey! This challenge is clearly open to anyone! Therefore, I accept it as well!" Rob said as he walked into the ring and strangely, pulled out a coin. "Ok Batgirl, here's how it goes! Heads I win, tails you lose!"

"…I think you might have misunderstood the structure of the challenge." Cassandra replied, without a hint of irony.

"I wh…I mean, ok then! I guess we must resort to fisticuffs!" Gauntlet said, as he extended out his gauntlet. Noel was about to point out the no powers rule when Gauntlet swiftly formed the energy into a crude wig and mask and put it over his face.

"But you wouldn't hit an old lady would you?" He asked.

"You are not an old woman." Cassandra replied.

"Uh…ok! How about an old lady with glasses?" Gauntlet said as he formed glasses.

"I do not need to strike you in the face."

"No powers Rob." Noel reminded the teen.

"Well geez, if I can't use my powers I demand you add a provision that she at least REACT to my wit! ANY reaction at all!"

"No."

"Come on!"

"No."

"Noel, it's in my contract: you're Hamlet, Tim and Kory are Romeo and Juliet, and I'm the witty fool!"

"More like a foolish wit."

"HEY!"

"I've read _Twelfth Night_ too Rob. Get to it, or don't. Same rules: no powers, graze good land better, no time limit, if music be the food of love play on!" Noel said, quoting _Twelfth Night_ again.

"Come on Rob! If you lose, then the hardasses win!" Tara yelled.

"Well yes Tara, but I'm used to getting at least SOME kind of reaction with my words…hey you! You…have big feet!" Rob cracked at Cassandra. She didn't even raise an eyebrow.

"That's IT?" Tara said incredulously.

"The best material has a base to build on!" Rob said, even as he tried to get into fighting mode and figure out if there was some weakness he could exploit, as Noel walked over to Victor.

"You want to try after?"

"Hmmmmm? Nah. I'm too slow. She wouldn't hurt me with a blow but if all she has to do is land one, the battle would be lost before it started." Victor said, as he examined a popped up monitor on his arm.

"Problem?"

"Don't know. Have you noticed how it's gotten cooler suddenly?"

"…Come to think of it, yes." Noel said; the hot mugginess his friends and he had labored under had seemingly faded away in minutes.

"Weather can do that but it's not prone to. I'm just doing a general scan to see what's going on." Victor said.

"Any bad indicators?"

"Not yet." Victor said. Noel glanced at Rob, who was still dancing around Batgirl, constantly trying to get a response from the girl's stone features and continually finding himself stifled. Noel smirked to himself: Rob could crack jokes until the cows came home and went to bed, he wouldn't get anywhere. David Cain had trained Cassandra not to react if she was SHOT: he doubted Rob's incessant need for banter would produce anything else.

"Look Vic, I need to talk to you about something…" Noel began.

And then Rob leapt to the side, did a swift cartwheel into a flipping jump, and landed and kicked out with his leg…and found Batgirl's hand there almost before he had thrown the kick, as she grabbed him and spun, throwing him down on the ground. Before he could react she planted a knee on his chest and leaned down with her fist raised, indicating that if she wanted to she could plant it between Rob's eyes before he could do anything to stop it.

"Bang." She said, as she lightly tapped him on the forehead with her knuckles. "You're dead."

"…Hey! I call foul!" Rob yelled.

"On what basis?" Noel asked, a little irritated that his opening with Victor had suddenly slammed shut.

"You said no using powers! But she's clearly using powers!"

That actually succeeded in getting a reaction out of Cassandra, as she arched an eyebrow at Rob's accusation.

"She's not using powers. She doesn't have any powers to use. She's pure human." Noel pointed out, as Cassandra got to her feet and helped Rob up.

"I am." She said simply.

"Oh no you're not! You have buttloads of powers! Like…body reading powers! And…kicking powers!" Rob protested. Noel rolled his eyes, while Cassandra stared at Rob with the expression that she was honestly questioning if he was all right in the head.

"She doesn't have powers Mr. Dynamite. You just lost. So get out of the ring and stop complaining."

"But…she…powers…!"

"She doesn't have powers! And if you don't get, I'm going to demonstrate my removing annoying twits from makeshift rings powers!" Noel snarked.

"Oh fine. 'I am gone sir! And anon sir! I'll be with you again…'" Rob sang, as he started dancing out of the ring. Noel recognized that he was quoting _Twelfth Night_ AGAIN and rolled his eyes.

"Quit it."

" 'In a trice! Like to the old Vice, your need to sustain; who, with daggers of lath, in his rage and his wrath, cries, ah, ha! To the devil: Like a mad lad, pare thy nails dad: ADIEU, GOOD MAN DEVIL!" Rob said as he danced out of the ring.

"And that's all one, may this play be done." Noel muttered.

"Vic! Dude! Your turn!" Gar said, clearly not having given up on the idea of beating Noel's challenge.

"Nah Gar. I wouldn't be able to win anyway." Vic said.

"No! No! You could!"

"No he couldn't. Five more minutes guys, and then you run the last lap. Then we can go inside and…"

"Can I try?"

Noel turned his head around to see Nigel standing a few feet away, and realized that in the rampart Shakespeare and efficient buttkicking that he'd forgotten about the alien. The Blacktrinian had taken off his jacket and shirt for the earlier training, and he must have retrieved them before he had headed up to join the team as they were now held by one hand with the clothing draped over his shoulders, his hat perched on his head as he held his glaive with his other hand.

"…Hmmmm. You feel up to it Nigel?"

"I feel fine."

"Odd I thought you were dying."

"I got better."

"Yeah! Go Nigel! Save us!" Gar said, as Tara did her own generic cheering. Noel looked exasperated.

"Are they worth it?" He asked sarcastically.

"Tara's never-ending cracks about my girlfriend's weight aside, always." Nigel said, as he walked forward. He shoved his glaive into the ground before Noel could tell him to, reading his mind when it came to weapons, and shrugged off his makeshift cloak to reveal his gray skinned torso, criss-crossed with scars, including the one of the wound that never healed, a wound Noel had inflicted himself in a crisis and had regretted ever since. Nigel plucked his hat off his head and tossed it to Noel, who caught it as he looked on the scene with interest. While he had expected that Gar, Tara, and Rob had a snowball's chance in hell when it came to hand-to-hand with Cassandra, Nigel…

Noel recalled a story Tim had told him once, of how Cassandra had confronted the Joker for the first time. The Joker was by any standards a sub-par hand-to-hand combatant, but he had an edge most of Cassandra's opponents never would. Her power was her sublime ability to read body language, but the Joker was so nuts it actually transferred to his body language and reduced it to gibberish for Cassandra, giving him the advantage. He'd pounded on Cassandra, something that was not easy to do, and while Cassandra had eventually found a way to win, the concept still mused in Noel's head. She'd been at a disadvantage because of someone taking a normal thing and putting a spin on it, and while Nigel was no manifestation of chaos like the Joker, he certainly couldn't be classified as 'normal'.

"All right. Nigel, be careful and tone down the strength."

"Gotcha." Nigel said.

"Cassandra, he's got a healing wound in his chest, please do your best not to hit it."

"As you wish." Cassandra said, as Nigel stretched and cracked various parts of his body.

"Ok…I guess the same applies. Nigel, you get Cassandra, you 'win', or rather they do. That's about it. Any problems?"

"Are weapons still not allowed?" Cassandra said, as Nigel raised his clawed hands. Realizing what she was referring to, Nigel glanced at his two fingered hands and then smirked, showing a double-toothed fang on either side of his mouth.

"Sorry dear lady. These are…permanent." Nigel said, tapping on one claw with another. And he told the truth: Blacktrinians had to have the metal fused right onto their hands because they were born without any kind of natural defense there for some biological reason Noel had never fully understood.

"Permanent?" Cassandra repeated. There wasn't a trace of fear or nervousness in her voice: just a combatant assessing the war ground.

"Oh yes."

"Come on Nigel! I got fifty bucks on you!"

"I SAID NO GAMBLING!"

"Oh well, I guess I'll just have to keep the money…"

"GIVE IT BACK!"

Nigel grinned again at the chaos, and tapped his claws together and then gestured to Cassandra.

Who, for the ever-briefest time, let a ghost of a smile flick over her features, and then, for the first time, she actually assumed a combat pose.

The first thing that came to Noel's mind from the subsequent action was that Nigel had underestimated the damage he may have taken from his little air trip, as he suddenly lurched to the side, stumbling around like he was drunk. Noel arched an eyebrow, and was about to ask if he wanted help, as Nigel stumbled around a bit more…and then he stepped on a small rock, and seemed to trip over it, but he didn't fall…something he surely would have done if he really was in a daze, considering how top heavy he was. Noel's eyes narrowed slightly, as he reexamined his vision…and saw it. He probably could only make it out due to how well he knew Nigel, but Nigel's stumbling wasn't because of any injury. It appeared to be some kind of variant on Drunken Boxing, and while Noel was sure Cassandra could see through that, he didn't yet know what alien twists Nigel might throw in, as he continued to stumble dance around. Cassandra moved much more cautiously, her arms so firmly set it was like she was cast from stone.

Nigel stumbled again…

The exact move details Noel couldn't make out, as Nigel first seemed to 'drunkenly' swat at Batgirl, and even as she started to dodge he seemed to fall on his face, only to put a hand under him and slash out with his leg, and even as Cassandra saw that and jumped away Nigel shifted his weight and hurled himself through the air and over Cassandra. He lashed out with a kick, but as Cassandra dodged around it and tried to use the same move she had used to fell Gauntlet, Nigel twisted and did a very tight flip backwards, landing on his knees and springing forward as he did a quick volley of slashing punches. Cassandra blocked them all with a flurry of arms and flipped backwards, trying to catch Nigel with a kick on the way, but Nigel swung his head back and snapped it back into place as Cassandra completed her flip and got back into a combat position.

The three Titans who had been beaten cheered, Cyborg appeared to be too interested in his data to watch the fight, and Noel's eyes narrowed some more, even as he smirked a bit. It always amazed him how stupid the Blacktrinian Empire had been. They lived for war and yet had dismissed Nigel as being weak, which is why he had been trained as a doctor instead. Yet on Earth, Nigel had shown more combat potential and skill then their feeble little minds could have ever comprehended.

But as skilled as he was…Cassandra was something else.

That didn't mean the fight was over yet though.

Cassandra had changed her stance slightly, as the two circled each other. Nigel leaned to the side, putting his weight on one knee while keeping one outstretched, as he waved his claws in lazy circles…

And then he was flying through the air, his legs a tornado. Cassandra dodged one and blocked another, but the impact clearly threw her off balance. Nigel landed and spun up with a claw, but Cassandra went with her slight disorientation as she fell and thrust up a knee to block the blow, using the impact to flip over and get to her feet and charge, snapping off two jabs that took Nigel in the face and knocked him back. A kick to the shoulder knocked him down, and Cassandra took a step back as Nigel landed on his hands, flipped up, and flexed his knees as he prepared to leap again. His body began to surge up…

Cassandra was already lifting her leg to kick him out of the air…

And then Nigel's momentum abruptly changed as he somehow changed the impetus from up to out, as he sprang forward, low to the ground…so low he actually slid right under Cassandra's leg.

Cassandra whirled…

Nigel's hands were snapping up, seizing Cassandra by her head, and then Nigel leapt down and out as he yanked the girl down to the ground, slamming her face slightly against his shoulder as they both fell down.

Blow landed.

"YEAH!" Gar and Tara cheered, as they grabbed hands and danced. No fifth lap for them.

And Noel couldn't help but smirk again. Nigel's alien fighting style had proven to hold up long enough after all, even as Nigel released Cassandra as she shoved off and flipped away, Nigel spinning up to his feet.

He smirked as he rubbed a finger under his nose.

And despite herself, Cassandra let a tiny grin curl up one corner of her mouth as well.

"I guess you're lucky as well as skilled."

"More skilled then lucky."

"That has yet to be decided." Cassandra said.

And then she leapt forward and furiously attacked Nigel. In Noel's experience, it was the first time he had seen such a blitzkrieg type maneuver without a hint of intense emotion behind it, as Cassandra, her features completely serene, fired off punches and kicks in a style more benefiting an enraged Bruce Lee. Nigel threw up his defenses, but there were just too many blows, as they slammed into his legs, arms, and twice, his face. Nigel didn't panic though, as he weathered the storm and fired off his own blows that were dodged or blocked…

Until Cassandra turned a dodge into a whole new kind of block, as she moved just enough to remove most of the impact from the blow as her other arm reached up and grabbed Nigel's, twisting it as she tried to throw him to the ground.

To her surprise, Nigel went with her, and assuming he was going to try a reversal of the momentum she shifted the maneuver so he'd be dropped right into the ground instead of being tossed to it…

Only to find Nigel shifting once more, and as soon as his feet landed he shoved off the ground even as he somehow managed to untangle his arm from Cassandra's, sliding right under her legs again.

Cassandra wasn't falling for the same move twice though, as she spun in a different away even as she snapped up her foot to performing a pistoning stomp kick…

And found Nigel's claws seizing her ankle. He didn't do the same move twice either, as when he'd gotten behind her he'd started a backflip and then rolled to his side, timing the move precisely with Cassandra's so he was on his knees and in the right position to grab when she kicked, a grab he turned into a throw as he hurled Batgirl across the ring.

She flipped in mid air and landed on her feet, even as the three cheered again and Noel's eyes widened in surprise.

"Man. Nigel keeps this up he'll have the best ever title in a bit." Cyborg said, finally having looked up from his data.

"……No." Noel said, as Nigel tipped an imaginary hat to Cassandra and then got down on all fours to charge at her like an animal. "Nigel's managed this much due to his alien nature, but what Cassandra doesn't know, she learns. And she learns…VERY fast…" Noel said, as Nigel tried to catch Cassandra with a low dropkick type maneuver, only to have her spin away and come up right behind him as he got up, thunking a knife edge chop into the back of his head. He spun, and then spun again, not attacking on the first twirl but the second in an attempt to catch Cassandra off guard, but she was having none of that as she zipped in around the blows and kicked Nigel in the knee. He went down to the other with a gasp.

"Is this matter settled?" Noel asked.

"No…not just yet!" Nigel said as he got up and lashed out with a flurry of kicks. But it was clear his time was done: Cassandra had adapted to his style and now knew how to exploit it like she had been training against it for years, as his last kick flew into her hands, and with a blur of motion she snapped the leg down and twirled it in such a way she threw Nigel face first into the ground. Nigel was immediately up though, as he tried a few feints and then a claw blow to Cassandra's torso, but the claw also found its way into Cassandra's hands as she locked his arm and then brought her leg up, aligning it with Nigel's face as she snapped off several kicks into it, her knee working like a jackhammer as she struck numerous quick blows to his face, and when Nigel tried to break free she adjusted the lock as she slammed her foot across his face and then her heel back across from it, finally letting Nigel's arm go as he fell onto his back.

"You really want to continue Nigel? It most likely isn't going to get any better." Noel said as the fallen alien leaned up on one hand, shaking his head as he tried to clear the cobwebs.

"Heh! Please. After Cauterize's blitz combat style, I can barely feel this!" Nigel said, though there was more lie to his boast then he would have liked.

"Well if you insist. Don't damage him if you can manage it Cassandra." Noel said.

"I will do my best."

"I'm not the one who should worry about damage!" Nigel said as he got up, and as Noel prepared to watch the latest clash, he suddenly felt a hand tapping him on his shoulder.

"Yes?" He said, as he turned to look at Cyborg.

"Look at the sky."

Noel did so. The sun had been covered with a thick layer of dark gray clouds.

"I take it there's something strange about this."

"Potentially. Weather's a Machiavellian thing: change one small detail and everything changes, so this could just be natural…but…my readings are giving me a feeling…" Cyborg said. Noel looked at the small monitor on his arm, but he couldn't make heads or tails of what he was seeing.

And he was suddenly aware of a certain scent. A scent normally only detected in the wake of lightning strikes and laser grids. The scent of ozone.

"So what is it the weather?"

"I don't know if it's the weather or something affecting the weather."

"Mardon's in jail." Noel said, referring to the Flash foe known as the Weather Wizard.

"More then one fish."

"Then just what are you worried about?"

"That's the thing: I don't know!"

"Well Victor no need to panic for no reason."

"But there has to be a reason!"

"I'm inclined to believe you but sometimes things are just things."

"When is it ever that way in our lives?"

"Less often then I'd like."

"Ok then…" Cyborg said, feeling more cross at himself for not being able to put a finger on his intuition then Noel's answers. "Then answer me this: is that buzzing just in my head?"

"………………No…I hear it too…" Noel said, as he was suddenly aware of a noise that sounded like the mother of all bee swarms…

And then it happened.

With a sound that was part paper tearing, part glass breaking, and part noise Noel couldn't find an appropriate descriptive metaphor for, the air down on the beach near where the three male Titans had trained suddenly tore open like it was a garbage bag instead of, well, reality. A loud bang followed the ripping noise, causing the Titans to recoil, all of them having stopped dead in what they were doing.

"What the hell…!" Noel yelled.

"Never a dull moment!" Rob commented.

And then the hole, maybe eight feet from tip to tip and two feet in length, pulsed with strange lights…

And then it flew from the hole, and the Titans recoiled again at the light and noise, and even as they did Noel's brain piped up with some info, a strangeness he had detected in the noise, part of it more then just interdimensional racket, part of it sounding…

Human.

And as quickly as it had come, it was gone. The hole closed up and vanished, leaving not a trace behind of its existence. The sand beneath it wasn't even disturbed.

At least by the hole itself.

The thing had had been tossed from it…not so much.

"What's going on?" Cassandra asked, suddenly beside Noel, even as he tried to find out himself.

"Oh the usual. Training drills, martial arts, the laws of physics finding a new way to show us they aren't." Rob said as he headed over and hopped onto the computer bank to get a better view at whatever had been tossed out of the hole.

"Cyborg." Noel said, even as a subtle shift happened in his head. He wasn't Noel Collins any more, he was Savior, as a Shimmer strand reached out and retrieved his jacket. A brief glance upward showed that the dark gray clouds were beginning to break up. Savior supposed that could be coincidence…or that it had just been a sign of what had just happened, which was…what?

"On it." Cyborg said as his eye shifted into scan mode, even as his head opened up and attached a small telescope to his mechanical eye so he could scan in really close.

That didn't much help him determine exactly what lay in the sand…at first anyway.

Then it moved.

"Geez, I think it's human." Cyborg said.

"Human?"

"Yeah…I think…it looks like a young boy. Maybe twelve years old. Assuming that's a red suit and not a natural skin color."

"Or an injury." Savior said as he went closer to the cliff and peered at the figure lying on the beach.

He was too far away to see the movement, but Cyborg did.

"Damn, it is a kid!"

"You sure?"

"About as sure as I can be!"

"Well all right then. If it's a kid, who is he and what is he doing here and HOW did he…come to think of it, one question at a time." Savior said.

"Damn, those young whippersnappers always have to do the fancy reality tearing to impress us old timers these days!" Beast Boy joked.

"I doubt this was an attempt to impress us." Savior said. "Is he hurt?"

"Maybe…he doesn't look happy but I can't see any wounds…or his face…" Cyborg said as he continued to scan.

"All right." Savior said as he went into leader mode. "Gauntlet, Cyborg, you both have the best armor. I want you to go down there and find out what's going on. Terra and I will be covering you in case this is a trap."

"But…the first person to check out the disturbance in horror films always dies first! I mean, it was a nice gesture to send Vic with me, but I'm probably gonna be dead in ten seconds anyway!"

"And wouldn't THAT be a great loss."

"HEY!" Both Gauntlet and Cyborg said, though for different reasons: Gauntlet was replying to Savior's nasty sarcasm and Cyborg was replying to Gauntlet's old assertation in horror films that the black guy always died first.

"Terra and I will be covering you. Gauntlet, please. You can take a hit much better then any of us." Savior asked.

"You didn't seem to have such confidence in me a second ago." Gauntlet replied.

"Argh. Gauntlet, we can fight later! Please go back up Cyborg!"

"Ok, ok…" Gauntlet said as his namesake expanded out into full fight mode, as he and Cyborg hopped off the cliff.

"Batgirl, Beast Boy, Scalpel, back us up." Savior said, as Terra floated by on a rock platform and Savior hopped on. The Titans and guest made their way over to the fallen figure, Savior dropping off the rock and sprinting past Gauntlet and Cyborg in order to cover the two head Titans at both sides.

"Yeah, definitely a kid." Cyborg said as they approached.

The form on the ground stirred.

Cyborg debated prepping his sonic cannon or keeping it concealed to prevent himself from looking hostile. In the end he decided that he'd take the peaceful route.

The kid was getting up, thought his back was still to Cyborg…

And he was making…rather strange noises that Cyborg's better hearing was picking up. Farther away, Scalpel's elongated ears twitched as he also heard the oddness.

"…Hello? Kid? You all right?" Gauntlet asked.

The child was on one knee now, still facing away, his shoulders rising and falling rapidly. Somehow Cyborg didn't think hyperventilating was a good sign.

"Kid? Are you ok? Do you speak English? Hey! HEY!" Gauntlet said, as he took a few steps closer.

Dashiel Parr turned around.

It was true that the Titans didn't know him from Adam, but they didn't need to in order to know something was wrong.

Dash's face had some sand stuck to it, and a slight string of saliva dangled from his mouth. It was now clear he was hyperventilating, his chest rising and falling, his eyes as wide as saucers…and lacking any kind of sense, comprehension, or order. There are wild eyes, there are WILD eyes…and then there are those who go beyond even THAT.

And Dash's eyes were in the last category. Gauntlet stopped his approach.

"Holy…"

Dash screamed. It wasn't a human scream, or even the scream of an animal in pain. This was a sound only a human brain could produce when it had been subjected to conditions both unknown and terrible, a sound that a human throat could never produce under normal circumstances.

Apparently it had been a VERY bad trip.

And then Dash did what he always did when it came to his abbreviated name. He ran.

As mentioned, despite aging three years Dash was still rather short. Unfortunately, he wasn't short ENOUGH, as his first sprint took him right at Gauntlet…and right between Gauntlet's legs, as he had widened them in case he needed to jump, only to find his reflexes were too slow to prevent anything from happening, as Dash's upper head slammed against a certain area that all males know is a BAD place to be hit.

"…Hrk." Gauntlet whimpered as he hit the sand.

"…I felt that. Poor guy." Scalpel commented.

And in the time of that comment, the following actions occurred.

Dash ran down the beach.

Cyborg, having seen what had happened to Gauntlet, started to target him as his arm shifted to his cannon mode.

And Dash changed directions and ran back towards Cyborg. He was far too fast for Cyborg to dodge, but Dash didn't run straight into him. He merely glanced him…but with his speed that was enough to spin Cyborg around as he fell on his back.

And then Dash was on him, snarling and screaming like a rabid dog, as he tore at Cyborg's face, and Cyborg yelled and tried to keep Dash's hands away but they were moving so fast, clawing at his features, as Dash snarled some more, out of his mind…

"HEY!" Savior yelled as he leapt in, lashing out with a Shimmer strand. It slammed into Dash, knocking him off Cyborg…and even as Dash flew through the air his hands seized on the strand, clawing at it several times without effect before Dash was either struck by inspiration or his misfiring brain just got lucky as Dash bit down on the energy.

And while the pain wasn't as bad as if Dash had attacked the Shimmer with a knife, it was still enough to jolt Savior into stopping his leap, his feet touching the ground…

And then Dash ran into him, just before Savior's weight fully settled down, slamming into Savior's right leg. The fact that Savior hadn't fully hit the ground probably saved him from a broken knee and Dash from a broken face, as Savior spun through the air, doing a complete 450 rotation before he slammed face first into the sandy beach, as Dash ran on, seemingly unaffected by the powerful impact his small frame had made or maybe just not caring about it.

"What the hell…!" Terra said as Dash ran past her. This didn't make any sense. She wasn't far off the ground: he could have gotten her with a leap. But after taking down three Titans Dash seemed to have forgotten all about them, as he ran past her and then sideways to a cliff face, and then actually up it for a bit before he lost his hold and fell back down. He got back up and ran off back towards Terra, and she realized she couldn't figure out his tactics or lack thereof later and fired off several dull pebbles.

They all missed as Dash zipped past her again, and then Beast Boy was there, transforming into a cheetah and giving chase, but Dash easily outpaced the changeling. Terra flew off to assist as Dash ran around the curve of the island.

"PLE-AH!" Savior gasped as he got up, spitting out sand as it streamed from his nostrils and burned in his eyes. Blind, he stood up, waving his arms and trying to gather his senses…and then he felt a clawed hand putting something in his. A water bottle. Most likely grabbed by Nigel for the young boy who had proven the only help he wanted was to seemingly help the Titans to an early grave. Savior tore the top off and dumped it on his face, blinking away the stinging sand as he spat more of it out, hating the way it ground between his teeth.

"Argh! Fucking Speed Force user!" Savior cursed, though he didn't know if that was the case. But it usually was, so Savior went with that assumption.

"Do you know that child?" Batgirl was asking.

"No!" Savior snapped, as he looked around. "Cyborg, you ok?"

"I think so…" Cyborg said as he tried to collect himself.

"Gauntlet?"

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK?" Gauntlet roared.

"Scalpel, go check and make sure that impact didn't rupture a testicle. Batgirl…um…" Savior said as he realized that Batgirl was a guest and he technically couldn't command her.

"I'll stay here for now."

"Thanks." Savior said, as he bounded after Beast Boy and Terra, while Batgirl went to help Scalpel with his checkup and Cyborg popped up another monitor to do some calculations.

You could say Dash was running rings around Terra and Beast Boy…except the young boy lacked the sense to even do such a simple maneuver. He made up for it in the fact he could run at several hundred miles an hour. Every animal form Beast Boy choose either couldn't keep up with him or snare him, and Terra's rock attacks proved to be no more successful. You would think after fighting Cauterize, they would have been somewhat better at battling speedsters…but as mentioned, Beast Boy and Terra tended not to take their training too seriously.

That was frustrating Terra now, as she made several sand hands and tried to grab Dash, but he dodged them all and ran past Terra, kicking up a wave of sand that washed over her. She was quick enough to close her eyes but not quick enough to avoid inhaling some sand, and she quickly began gagging and spitting as Beast Boy chased after Dash as a swift, the fastest of all birds. Even THAT couldn't keep up with him.

"Ah!" Terra said as Savior landed on her rock next to her just as she was finishing up cleaning out her mouth.

"Status report." Savior said, ignoring the fact he'd startled the blonde.

"No good! Not only if he fast, he's attacking without rhyme or reason!"

"That's because he doesn't have the capacity for it."

"What?"

"You saw his eyes. Something's wrong with his brain."

"You mean he's on drugs?"

"Or been subjected to something that would cause a similar reaction. He's not even using the instincts of a wild animal, just acting on whatever info his misfiring synapses feed him. Bad type of foe: it's virtually impossible to predict…" Savior said, and then Dash was gone, running back the way he had come. "Shit! GO GO GO!" Savior ordered, and Terra sent her rock perch after Dash, as Beast Boy joined them.

"You sure you're ok Gauntlet?" Scalpel asked the now standing teenager.

"Oh sure. I can even do the voice of Alvin the next time they make another Chipmunks cartoon!" Gauntlet squeaked.

"Your voice is not affected by testicular impact Gauntlet. That's just an urban legend of your species." Scalpel said.

"Why don't I kick you in your balls and you can see how urban it is!"

"I suggest you not fight among yourselves, that child may…" Batgirl began.

And then Dash was back, running past the group of the three and heading for Cyborg again, who looked up from his calculations.

"AW HELL NO!"

And then Dash ran past him.

"What the?"

And reversed and ran past him again.

"Ok if you're not going to take this seriously…!" Cyborg yelled, as Dash ran back towards the three, easily avoiding Batgirl and Scalpel's leaping blows and Gauntlet's yellow energy tendrils. Terra flew in with Savior, Beast Boy right behind them…and then Dash shrieked and began running in a large circle, swiftly whipping up a dust devil that drove all the Titans back due to the wind and stinging sand. Terra yanked several chunks of cliff down to use as cover and the Titans ran behind them…and then the tornado stopped, the sand clearing as Dash clawed at his eyes, clearly having gotten sand in them himself, as he continued to snarl and growl.

"Geez, this is like fighting the Tasmanian Devil!" Beast Boy cursed.

"Maybe, but we still have to stop him. And to do that we first have to determine if he IS a Speed Force user." Savior said.

"On it." Gauntlet said, as he leapt over the boulder and ran over near Dash as he apparently finished getting the sand out of his eyes. "Hey! Toro, toro!" Gauntlet said, waving a yellow energy cape.

Dash, er, dashed right for him, and Gauntlet, by the skin of his teeth, reformed the cape into a wall that Dash ran headlong into, bouncing off and falling to the ground. Gauntlet withdrew the wall and ran back to the group.

"He's not a user of the Goes Fast. Even nuts, he would have vibrated right through me." Gauntlet said.

"………..And it didn't occur to you to follow up on the attack before he recovered?" Savior yelled. Gauntlet's eyes widened, and he turned to find Dash back up and running down the beach again.

"…damn." Gauntlet said.

"You see what I mean by saying you need more training?" Savior said.

"I was a lot more competent back when I didn't have a team to think for me, really I was." Gauntlet defended himself with, as Cyborg joined the two teens.

"Well at least we know he's not going to vibrate through us and rip out our hearts or something." Cyborg said.

"Yeah, but it's clear from the fact he got sand in his eyes from his own dust devil that he's so nuts he doesn't even have the capacity to think of self-preservation. So I suggest we grab him before he runs face first into a wall and brains himself." Savior said, and he took off after Dash, Beast Boy and Terra in tow. The rest of the Titans and Batgirl stayed behind, having gathered they would probably just get in the way at the moment.

"I take it he's moving too fast for you to read, Batgirl?" Gauntlet asked the Japanese teen.

"Even I cannot read a dictionary in two seconds."

"Thought as much. Speeds like that…wait a minute." Gauntlet said. "Cyborg, I haven't heard one sonic boom. That means if you set the cannon to wide dispersion, it should be fast enough to catch Taz there."

"Hey, that just might work!" Cyborg said, as he armed his cannon and began pressing buttons on its side.

"Cyborg, if I am mistaken forgive me, but won't dispersing the beam severely weaken its impact?" Scalpel said, as he scanned the distance for any sign of the superfast preteen and his Titan pursuers.

"Yeah, but it'll mess up his balance something fierce. I think that'll be enough with his mindless…"

"HERE HE COMES!" Scalpel yelled.

And even that almost wasn't fast enough, as Dash zoomed in and by…

And was caught in Cyborg's wide range blast. Fortunately, he had enough wherewithal to lead his shot.

Dash flew off his feet and bounced across the sand several times, coming to a stop. He didn't move…at first…

Beast Boy came bounded after him as a cheetah again, crossing the distance as Dash got up, shaking his head…

And then two large gorilla hands seized him.

"Gotcha!"

"All right!" Cyborg said, grinning.

As Terra and Savior approached, Beats Boy turned around…

And then Dash screamed and began fighting furiously to get out of Beast Boy's grip. And while not able to vibrate, he could still move at super speed, even if it was tiny movements, and tiny movements at super speed quickly added up to a lot.

"Hold him BB!" Gauntlet yelled as the remaining Titans charged toward him.

"I'm trying! Little…bugger's a real…handful!" Beast Boy grunted as Dash fought even harder…

And then bit Beast Boy.

That wasn't so bad.

Except he did it seventeen times in a second to a relatively small area.

"OWWW!" Beast Boy roared, as he felt his muscles instinctively relax…

Dash slipped out of his hands, and before Beast Boy could grab him again he was off, dodging both Beast Boy and Shimmer strands as he ran towards the sea…and off across it, running on the water as if it was as solid as rock.

"…He can run on water. Of COURSE he can run on water. Where's Aqualad when you need him?" Savior cursed.

"I don't recall needing girlfriends stolen or fish scolded." Gauntlet commented. Savior glared at him briefly and then looked back at Dash as he ran back and forth through the bay near the island.

"Cyborg, can you shoot him again?" Scalpel asked.

"Too far out."

"Not to mention he'd fall in and probably drown. Ok…Cyborg, give me a rebreather!" Savior said.

"You got it." Cyborg said, as a compartment snapped open on his waist.

"Terra, you follow him from above, Beast Boy, you join me below water. Maybe we can ambush him."

"Dude, what are you going to do under water? I can't carry you, you'll slow me down!"

"Don't worry about it." Savior said, as several Shimmer strands sprang from his back. "Ian Thorpe's gonna have nothing on me."

Cyborg tossed Savior the rebreather, essentially a miniature gas mask and oxygen tank, though it only had a few minutes of air.

"If he runs back this way, do your best to nab him. Come on BB!" Savior said as he ran for the water and dove under, Beast Boy by his side as Terra flew out above the waves and headed for Dash.

Beast Boy transformed into a dolphin and began swimming…and found that Savior wasn't with him. He turned around and found the teen struggling with his Shimmer "motors", as he clearly wasn't experienced enough in underwater travel to properly use them to go in one direction at high speed. Beast Boy watched, then shrugged (in a metaphorical sense) and assumed Savior would have ordered him to give chase (seeing how he couldn't talk with the rebreather in his mouth), and swum off in Dash's direction.

Terra was doing her best to keep up with Dash on her perch, but she'd had severe trouble doing it before and with the wide open terrain the water allowed it was now even harder, as he zipped and zapped all over the place and she frantically tried to follow him. When Beast Boy tried getting him by rising up as a whale with his mouth open, Dash just ran in, banged around like a pinball, and ran back out as Beast Boy transformed back into himself, clutching his jaw.

"Well this is a remarkable way to spend our morning." Scalpel commented as he, Cyborg, Gauntlet, and Batgirl watched from on shore.

"I have a question." Batgirl suddenly said.

"What?" Gauntlet asked.

"Before I came here, Oracle warned me you would probably try something, uh, romantic with me. Why haven't you?"

"Is this the best time to be asking such a question?"

"I don't see why not now."

"…Fair enough. I'm…" Gauntlet began to reply, then nearly broke his neck as Dash made a funny turn. "I'm idiotic, but I'm not stupid. I know you're not interested in that kind of thing. So, the next girl that comes along gets my stalking double."

* * *

Somewhere in a void between dimensions…

"ACHOO!"

* * *

"You're sure he's not a Speed Force user? Or is it a Goes Fast user? What's the name now?" Scalpel asked Cyborg and Gauntlet.

"Technically it's Speed Force, but really, it's the power of going fast. Which makes all the stuff Flash does with it ridiculous. I mean, you shouldn't be able to make pants out of Goes Fast." Gauntlet said.

"Speed Force or Goes Fast, he doesn't seem to have access to the dimension of the runners. I've got him clocked at a few hundred miles an hour. That's fast, but not that fast."

"Speak for yourself." Gauntlet said, rubbing his still sore testicles.

Terra was now calling rocks from the ocean bottom and trying to trap Dash, but he kept running out of and away from her rock snares before she could finish them.

Then Savior suddenly exploded from the water, Shimmer tendrils firing out…

And missing. Savior landed in the water again as Dash ran on, and he aggravatingly slapped the water and dove under again.

A giant green squid next arose from the waves, but Dash avoided all of Beast Boy's tentacles…and then suddenly changed directions and ran right back for the shore.

"Ack!" Gauntlet said, as Dash was among them before he knew it. The Titans all launched into attack mode…and three seconds later were all tangled in a heap as Dash ran on, down the beach again.

"I hope this kind of embarrassment is not common for your team." Batgirl commented, as Savior emerged from the bay, pushing his soaked hair away as he blinked salt water from his eyes.

"This is getting us nowhere. Worse, the damn kid doesn't register the need to stop in his madness. He'll keep running until his lungs explode, at this rate." Savior said, as Terra hovered down near him and Beast Boy also emerged from the waves rubbing his jaw. "Anyone have any ideas?"

"Could see if he's faster then a speeding rubber bullet." Cyborg said, his sonic cannon switching to a gatling gun.

"Not a good idea with his small frame. Might do as much damage as a normal bullet, but then again I'm hard pressed to think of an idea to run him to ground…" Savior trailed off, and then his eyes widened as he thought over his last word.

"So what do we do?" Scalpel asked.

"Give chase!" Savior yelled as he leapt up onto Terra's rock. He said something the other Titans didn't hear, even Scalpel, and then suddenly Terra was flying the rock away from the group and towards the Tower.

"What the…hey! Savior! What the hell! What, do you have to use the bathroom or something?" Beast Boy yelled after the two.

"He probably has a reason…" Cyborg said, and then Dash ran past the group again. "TITANS, GO!"

The next fifty or so seconds, as the Titans chased Dash around the island, would have just needed a sped up piece of piano music to be a perfect modern version of the Keystone Kops. To people born in the last 80 or so years…that means they didn't do very well.

"You know, it's funny how we can beat gods and demon lords, but a kid who's been neglecting his Ritalin causes us so much trouble." Gauntlet commented after he and Batgirl attempted to corner Dash only to have him run by them so fast the wind knocked them down.

"KID! STOP RUNNING! YOU'RE GONNA GET YOURSELF KILLED!" Cyborg yelled as he ran after Dash, trying to zap him with the wide range cannon, but he kept missing. His only hit was Scalpel, who tried diving on Dash from a cliff above and just dove into the shot, causing him to collapse on his face as Dash ran on.

"Oh no Scalpel! Are you hurt?"

"Just my bones…and organs." Scalpel muttered as he got up.

Then Dash ran into his back. Scalpel flew forward and crashed into Cyborg, and as the two fell down Dash ran over them and ran on. When Beast Boy and Gauntlet jumped in front of him he did a perfect 90 degree turn and ran for the cliffs…

And right into a flock of bats. Dash stopped dead as the tiny winged mammals swarmed him, screaming and snarling as they batted at him with their wings and hammered his ears with a litany of squeaking shrieks. For once Dash's madness worked against him, as he couldn't coordinate enough to actually mount an offensive on the bats as they continued their attack, though strangely without any bites, as Dash thrashed and screamed in their midst…

And then suddenly the bats seemed to lessen in a certain area, and Dash went for it, breaking from the cloud and running away…

As a hump of sand suddenly shot up right before him.

The opening had been intentional. Dash had been led. And as a result, he ran right up the steep bump and off it before he could properly correct his run, flying into the air…

Where white strands of power grabbed him and wrapped him up tighter then a mummy.

"Off the ground, I'm afraid it's hard to feel the need for speed." Savior said, as he brought Dash down. The young teen was fighting like mad, but Savior's grip was a lot tighter then Beast Boy's, and he'd set up a Shimmer structure to lock Dash's neck so he couldn't bend down and bite the energy again. So Dash just yelled and spat.

"…Well, that certainly made US look bad." Beast Boy commented at Savior's setup.

"Quite frankly I'm just glad it's over." Cyborg said, as he approached Savior and his squirming bundle.

The flock of bats flew together and formed into a human form, a chubby female form. Sophie still looked rather flustered. One moment she was quietly doing some paperwork and the next Savior was bursting into her office and dragging her out and yelling about speed kids and how she needed to use her bats and she'd been rather disconcerted but she'd still managed to follow Savior's request, which was good.

"Are you ok?" Scalpel asked he approached Sophie. Sophie looked at her alien love…and then realized her lip was bleeding. Any injury her bats took transferred to her, and while she'd managed to avoid a majority of said injuries…apparently not well enough. She wiped at her lip, as Scalpel looked unhappy.

"…I have enough blood. You don't need to kill him."

"Oh no I won't kill him. I'll just maim him some." Scalpel said as he turned and stalked toward the grouped Titans, Sophie scurrying after him in case he was serious.

"Kid! Calm down!" Savior was saying, but Dash was having none of it, as he continued to scream and scream…

"Ok then. Drastic times…" Savior said, and carefully inserted twin Shimmer strands into each of Dash's ears.

Dash snarled once more…and then his eyes glazed over and his head went limp.

"Was that necessary?" Terra asked.

"For more then one reason. Jesus, this kid's head is a mess." Savior said, as he linked up to Dash's brain and nervous system. "Whatever that portal was, it crossed so many wires it's amazing this poor kid's not brain dead."

"Can you fix the damage?"

"Already on it. Poor kid didn't have the faintest clue what he was doing…I'll be damned if he's going to be stuck like this if outside forces caused it…" Savior said, as he closed his eyes. Some of them watched him while others checked on each other to see if they were all right.

"…Ok. I think I managed to fix it." Savior said three minutes later. "But he still needs medical care. Nigel, go get your stuff fired up. Hopefully he didn't cripple himself in his little Terry Fox from hell performance."

"What about the portal he came from?" Batgirl asked.

"Oh, as soon as he's up and in stable condition, I'm going to get some answers. Count on it." Savior said, as he adjusted his Shimmer bindings into a stretcher and headed back to the tower with his team.

"Uh Noel…you do remember we don't have to run that last lap right?" Beast Boy asked.

"Yes yes Gar."

"WHOO-HOO!"

* * *

While the problems of the Titans might have ended for the time, another group of teens was just about to start having a problem of their own, a big one.

Let us pan away from Titans Tower, as the Titans take their new guest for medical care, and off across the Atlantic Ocean, on and on, watching the land eventually vanish from the distance, and on some more, to a large bank of clouds…

And into the clouds that formed a clump several square miles in diameter. As you might have guessed, these weren't entirely natural, as we go through the clouds…

And come to it.

In another comic universe, an organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D, a global defense force, made its main headquarters in a massive floating airborne juggernaut known as a helicarrier. Part stronghold, part military base, part weapons platform, and part aircraft hanger, the gigantic flying machine was truly a sight to behold and deadly to the extreme.

And it appeared that someone in this universe had recently been similarly inspired, as we come to the gargantuan floating platform nestled in the clouds. The vehicle/ base was set up in similar design to an aircraft carrier, albeit much larger, a bit rounder and with more protrusions. Towers and bridges branched through the structure, while a myriad of weapon platforms guarded the huge ship zealously. It was mammoth, nearly six times the size of the Roman Coliseum in its heyday and over three times as tall as the now fallen World Trade Center towers. Massive fusion powered jet engines as well as a myriad of immensely powerful anti-grav devices kept the huge base in the air. Done up in the traditional yellow and black honeycomb patterns of the HIVE, there was no doubt whose base this was.

It should have been the pride and joy of Brother Blood: after breaking out of prison, the rebuilding of his school had been his top priority, and he'd had plenty of time in jail to stew over his defeat and how it wouldn't happen again. And though it had taken a lot of work, eventually he'd had the first step in his grand revenge done. His new HIVE Base and school was truly a sight to behold, and would assist him in grand conquest…

If not for a certain problems: gigantic airborne bases bristling with weapons didn't exactly grow on trees.

Blood had been determined to have it though: his previous experiences with Cyborg and his blasted Titans had shown him that. A land based headquarters and an underwater headquarters both had the problem of being stationary: even if he beat the Titans other heroes could follow after them. With an air fortress though, he could move around…which helped in more ways then one. But the destruction of his last two schools had considerably taxed Blood's resources, not to mention building them had involved considerably less costs then a floating one. With the Hive Air Fortress (unofficially known by most of the students as the Sathanas, after a gigantic spaceship from some computer game Blood didn't have the time or caring to find out about), Blood had had to call in every single favor he had, not to mention ask for a lot himself, and while the "Hiveathnas" may have been completed, Blood was still deeply in debt. And a lot of his debtors were not very nice people. So Blood, instead of going for glory and revenge, was forced to make his first mission paying back all his creditors. At least rebuilding his actual organization had been easier, and it was now tirelessly at work, it's minions and drones going around the world to steal money or significant collateral, or doing favors on behalf of other clients. How Blood did this and also kept his masterful supervillain training school running at the same time, he didn't know. All he knew was that he had worked his ass off, and he wasn't going to be tripped up at this late stage of the game.

And that meant that when his students failed in their missions, missions that would have helped make a dent in the massive debt Blood owed, he wasn't exactly happy.

"YOU IDIOTIC BRAIN-DEAD SNOT-NOSED INCOMPETENT USELESS CHILDREN!" Blood roared at the six Hive members gathered before him, light flashing off the red crystal side of his head that he had acquired when he had transformed himself into a cyborg. "I waste my time, give you my knowledge, my experience, my plans, go to all the trouble of training you, declaring you new graduates, and what do you do? YOU FAIL ON YOUR VERY FIRST MISSION! YOU INCOMPETENTS SOMEHOW MANAGED TO BOTCH A MILK RUN LIKE A BANK ROBBERY! THIS IS A TREND I AM BEGINNING TO SEE AND LOATH EVEN MORE!"

The Troika all had the same looks of nervousness on their faces: when Blood was unhappy he sometimes used his mental telepathy and mind controlling powers to inflict terrible punishments, though the HIVE members could never remember exactly what those punishments were as Blood erased the memories afterward, claiming they were 'bad for morale'. Juryrig also looked nervous, though he was trying to put on a brave front, and Floral was literally cowering behind the black teen, terrified. Only Platinum Blonde seemed unconcerned: indeed, instead of listening she was examining her face in her compact again.

At least until Blood slapped it out of her hand.

"PAY ATTENTION YOU BUBBLE HEADED BIMBO! YOU'RE A PART OF THIS FIASCO AS WELL!" Blood roared in the metal teen's face.

"I think not!" Platinum Blonde protested in the haughty way the French can do so well. "I spent most of the mission stuck in a car! None of my so-called HIVE teammates bothered to help! How can I be of assistance when…"

"YOU WERE STUPID ENOUGH TO GET STUCK IN THE CAR IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU BUNGLING SLUT!"

"In all due faith sir, our mission was a simple robbery…" Juryrig began.

"EXACTLY! ROBBERIES ARE SIMPLE! EVEN THE RIDDLER CAN PULL OFF BANK ROBBERIES!"

"Sir it was a bank robbery. It wasn't a match against the Titans..." Juryrig tried to defend his team with.

"DID YOU ASSUME THE TITANS WERE JUST GOING TO SIT AROUND AND LET YOU ROB THEIR BANK? DID YOU?" Blood counter-bellowed. Juryrig did his best, but he still shrank back an inch. "YOU WERE THE HEAD OF THE NEW GRADUATES! NOW I THINK THAT REASON IS BECAUSE THE MOST RECENT GRADUATING CLASS WAS SO SMALL! MAYBE THE REASON YOU CAN MANIPULATE JUNK IS BECAUSE YOUR HEAD IS CLEARLY COMPOSED OF NOTHING BUT!"

"But sir…"

"SILENCE!" Blood screamed. "And you…" He said, turning to Floral, who cowered even more. "STOP SIMPERING! YOU ARE A MEMBER OF THE ELITE HIVE, ACT LIKE IT!"

"But if I act like that you'll just get mad that I'm not terrified of your yelling…" Floral protested.

"DON'T TALK BACK TO ME! WHY DIDN'T YOU THINK OF SENDING SOME OF YOUR PRECIOUS PLANTS TO GET SOME MONEY WHILE THE TITANS WERE AWAY, HENCE MAKING THIS A MESS INSTEAD OF THE UTTER COCKUP IT TURNED OUT TO BE!"

"I…didn't think…"

"NO YOU DIDN'T! YOU DON'T THINK! NONE OF YOU THINK! YOU…" Blood roared as he prepared to launch into another litany of insults.

He was interrupted as a door suddenly opened and a nameless Hive lackey ran in, breathing heavily. Blood's head swiveled to look at the interruption.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING IN HERE?"

"Sir…we…I…" The Hive lackey gasped.

"I have given strict orders not to be disturbed when I am punishing failures!"

"But sir…it's Scorcher…she heard and she's not happy…"

"What do I care what she thinks?"

"Sir…she wants to speak to you…"

"Later!"

"No sir, she's heading thi…"

"BLOOD!" Came a sudden female voice, and then the door the lackey had run through suddenly blew off its hinges in a blast of fire. The lackey gasped and ran away, as the six Hive members recoiled at the sudden violence. Only Blood remained unperturbed, as he looked at the wreckage of the door.

An elder teenage girl quickly walked in, dressed in a somewhat curious outfit. She wore a white shirt under a red and white corset, which wrapped around a large dark red open front dress that showed she was wearing baggy orangish red trousers, her feet covered with combat boots. Her eyes were a dark reddish brown color, and her hair could be described as fiery red considering it WAS fire, flowing down off her head like natural hair would. She was a pretty attractive girl, though she had some rings under her eyes that looked recent. She strode with the natural confidence of a leader, heading right for Blood. She did not look happy.

Though the fire girl looked strange, the two figures following her made her look almost normal. They were both girls as well. The first was notable for two things. One was her absolutely ridiculous hair. It actually looked like someone had somehow taken the stereotypical drawing of a lightning bolt, turned it upside down, and attached it to the woman's head as her hair, and yet somehow the hair worked instead of falling apart (static electricity manipulation, perhaps?). The second were her legs. They were very long, and INCREDIBLY toned. Due to the fact that she wore black biking shorts and a yellow T-Shirt with a black lightning bolt circling around the front and back for her costume, you could see every detail of the almost grotesquely developed muscles, her feet clad in special shoes that most likely helped with running. She was also fairly attractive in a cute way, with her crazy hair golden blonde and her eyes an exotic dark yellow, though she seemed both a bit nervous at Fire girl's anger and uncomfortable at…something, a vague factor that one couldn't immediately put a finger on.

And the other girl wasn't really a girl at all, as her body was made of rock. She towered over the two other girls, the feminine features slight but observable. She had straight long hair, or the closest thing to hair rock could form, glowing white eyes, and no discernable mouth. She followed Fire Girl with considerable more tranquility then Leg Girl was showing, as Fire Girl strode up and stopped right in front of Blood.

"Scorcher." Blood said, his anger still there but mostly replaced with exasperation. "Why do you continue to insist to try and undermine my authority?"

"What's this I hear about you yellin' at Rose?" Scorcher snapped back, a clear Southern accent in her voice.

"Her team failed, and she…"

"FAILED SCHMAILED! This was a bank robbery, not a combat mission!"

"That shouldn't matter!" Blood snapped back, getting angry again. "I have taken you Elementals in, I have made you a fair deal in exchange for your services, I have even given you a very generous teaching position and tolerated your outbursts with far more patience then I would allow anyone else, BUT I AM REACHING THE END OF MY ROPE!" Blood yelled.

Scorcher didn't blink, as her fire hair blazed up even more.

"Y'all lumping Rose and Antoinette in tha same boat?"

"YES!"

"You Yankie moron! Who are tha new grad-u-ates? Who ain't done any trainin' outside of combat rooms? Who are tha ones who ne'er fought tha Titans before?" Scorcher snapped, pointing at the three new Hive graduates, though she only really cared for Floral and Platinum Blonde: Juryrig just happened to be there with them.

"The Titans are at reduced strength! They should have at least escaped with SOME money if there are three less Titans then usual!"

"If I be re-collectin' right, it took just ONE of them thar Titans to take you down." Scorcher snarked. Blood's eyes narrowed, as they started to glow slightly.

"You sorely try my patience Miss Foster…" Blood growled, as he instinctively went with his brainwashing abilities, which had brought him to the dance…and then was immediately reminded of the reason he couldn't use them on Scorcher, which was not surprisingly the same reason he hadn't replaced her boldness with subservience a long time ago. Scorcher was a pyrokinetic, a fire controller, and a very strong one at that. But such strength had a cost: when Blood had first tried to control her mind, he had discovered that she needed to exert a lot of control to keep said strong fire powers in check. She had trained herself enough so that such control came naturally to her, but if her normal mental state was interrupted, say, if it was subverted by another's mind…that control vanished. And things got a lot hotter for anyone in the immediate vicinity.

So Scorcher was left with free will, and so by proxy were the other Elementals because Scorcher flipped out if Blood tried to command them. She said it wasn't necessary: she listened to him and they listened to her. Nonetheless, it pissed Blood off, but he lived with it. He might not be able to mentally command her, but there was more then one way to make a puppet dance.

"Perhaps I shall simply have the Lazarus location firebombed so no one can use it…" Blood said.

Scorcher's eyes narrowed, even as Leg Girl's eyes widened.

"No! Youcan'tdothatyoujustcan't!" She said, speaking so rapidly that it was amazing all her words didn't clump together into one mass of gibberish.

"A deal is a deal. If I'm not getting my side…why honor it?" Blood said, and chuckled nastily.

Scorcher's hair flamed up even more for a bit, and then grew subdued, as sadness briefly passed over Scorcher's eyes and then hardened into a look of disgusted resignation.

"…All right….fine….HEADMASTER BLOOD." Scorcher said, with a bit more sarcasm in her voice then Blood liked. "But I still say that you shouldn't be yelling at the newbies when the great Troika were there and they were just as useless, if not more."

"HEY! Watch your mouth you snot sniffing Sizzle wannabe!" Gizmo yelled. He hated the Elementals, always had, and he still couldn't believe that Blood allowed them to work with them. They weren't even true villains. They had once been on the other side of the fence, protecting a small metropolis known as Beach Shine City in California. They were called the Elementals because their name corresponded to their powers: each controlled an element. Back then there had been six of them, four females and two males. Floral and Platinum Blonde had been on the team, controlling plants and being metal. The girl with the incredibly muscular legs had the oh so cute name of Zippy, and she had been a non Speed Force using runner, sprinting with the power of lightning (hence her legs), at higher speeds actually becoming charged with electricity until she hit the speed of lightning, a thousand feet per second, at which point she could actually transform into a lightning bolt (it also was why she talked so fast: it was just the way she was). The female rock golem had once been a male geokinetic with the oh so original name of Rocko (creative names didn't seem to be a staple of the Elementals), until an accident had transferred his mind into a rock form that was somehow female (Gizmo didn't know the details, though he knew Rocko didn't much care for his/her transformation). And then there had been the leaders, Scorcher, a pyrokinetic…and her fiancée, a water controlling meta by the name of H-Duo.

Who had died in the same accident that had caused Rocko's current form to be.

And whose death had driven Scorcher to distraction, as she abandoned Beach Shine City, who she blamed for H-Duo's demise, and had taken the Elementals across the United States. Fate had brought them to the makeshift HIVE Academy Blood had been using while the air base was still being constructed, as Scorcher had heard that Blood might have some knowledge on the nigh impossible but doable task of reviving the dead. And to get that information, Scorcher and the Elementals had been willing to do anything, as they ripped a hole right through the academy. It had taken the combined forces of the Troika, a group of Hive graduates known as the Five (who no one spoke of any more, for various reasons), and Blood himself to beat them. But Blood hadn't killed them, oh no. Instead he saw a chance for a new group to be enslaved under his command, even if (and in a way, especially since) he couldn't mind control Scorcher due to her need to keep her fire powers in check.

Scorcher wanted a way to bring back H-Duo, and Blood knew of a way. And for her services, and the services of the Elementals, he would eventually tell her. Until then, she and her group would work under him.

And they did, but grudgingly. Hence Scorcher's outburst at Blood yelling at Floral, who Scorcher had a strong maternal bond with. Scorcher was a teacher at the academy due to her incredible power (her manipulation of flame was strong indeed), and hence couldn't accompany Floral on the mission, otherwise she would have, and now Blood was mad at her, which was a good thing as far as Gizmo was concerned as it meant he wasn't busy being mad at them…

"Despite ALL of you failing, she has a point…" Blood said.

Oh crud.

Blood was suddenly in the Troika's faces, as they recoiled away from him. Scorcher joined her two teammates, and Juryrig, having nothing against the Elementals like Gizmo did, decided he'd just continue standing among them and take advantage of the fact that Blood's focus was on the Troika now and hope it stayed that way.

"Failing is one thing, but you three HAVE MADE AN ART OUT OF IT FROM DAY ONE!" Blood bellowed. "EVERY CHANCE I GIVE, EVERY ENCOUNTER YOU HAVE WITH THE TITANS, YOU ALWAYS, ALWAYS, FAIL! IT MAKES ME WONDER WHY I LET YOU STAY HERE, WHY I LET YOU LEAD, WHY I LET YOU REMAIN BREATHING!"

"But Master Blood…" Jinx began.

"SILENCE! I AM SICK OF FAILURES, AND MOST OF ALL I AM SICK OF YOUR FAILURES! IF YOU INGRATES WEREN'T SO BLINDLY OBEDIENT, I'D KILL ALL OF YOU IN YOUR SLEEP! IN FACT, I JUST MIGHT DO IT ANYWAY! YOU'RE SO TERRIBLE, I THINK YOU GAVE ME CANCER! YES, I THINK IT IS TIME…!"

And then, suddenly…clapping.

That was not expected, even less so then Scorcher blowing the door down, as Blood, and indeed all the HIVE members, whirled at the sound of the clapping…and saw the figure leaning in the shattered doorway, a figure that glanced up from the ground and at the group as he continued to clap.

"Marvelous. Absolutely marvelous. I guess when the memo went out that a mastermind is often only as good as he treats his subordinates, you were in the can." The Jackal said, as he pushed off the wall and stepped fully into the room.

"What the…who the hell are you? How the hell did you get past security?" Blood sputtered: he did not like being caught off guard.

Jackal snorted.

"You call that security? I call that 26 seconds of my life I'll never get back." Jackal said derisively, as he slowly approached the cyborg commander of the Hive.

"Master Blood, you want me to…" Juryrig said, raising an arm to prepare to attack. The Troika was similarly getting ready for combat at the sight of the strange man who had appeared from nowhere.

"Hold it." Blood said, raising a hand. "So, you make it past security…and yet the very first thing you do is find me. That was not a smart choice, stranger."

"Intelligence is in the eye of the beholder. And speaking of beholding…" The Jackal said, as he walked a few more steps and stopped. Blood finally got a look at the intricate tattoos on the Jackal's face, and despite himself he shuddered, just a tiny bit. He may have had half his head removed, but even he didn't care for the idea of having a needle jabbed into his face so many times.

"Nice place. Well defended, massive attack capacity, fully stocked with nameless fodder and minions. I'll take it." Jackal said, as if he was discussing the weather.

"…What? You think…you can just…take my school?" Blood said, part angry and part incredulous.

"I'd prefer if you just hand it over. Save us all some time." Jackal replied.

Blood chuckled.

"Oh it's time for something, but not what you EXPECT!" Blood said, and his eyes suddenly glowed bright red. A glow that was almost immediately reflected in the Jackal's eyes.

"Man, making it past security just to become Blood's new shoeshine boy. That's rough." Mammoth said.

"Maybe if we're lucky Blood will work out his anger on him and dismiss us." Juryrig said, as the Hive students all grouped together so that if a fight broke out (though that now appeared unlikely), they wouldn't crash into each other as they all tried to get out of the way.

Brother Blood chuckled again. It had been so long since he had been able to bend someone new to his will he'd almost forgotten how good it felt.

"Now…let us properly define your role. I am your master." Blood told the Jackal.

"You are my master." Jackal replied in a monotone.

"Your only reason for living is to serve my will."

"My only reason for living is to serve your will."

"If I command you to die, you will do so immediately!"

"If I am commanded to die, I will do so immediately. Do you wish my death master?"

"Oh, no no no. I have a better idea. Bow at my feet, and then lick my boots clean."

"Yes master…" Jackal said, and got to one knee.

Blood grinned wickedly.

"And by the way, I really didn't think mind controllers talked that way. Congratulations on being a walking cliché." Jackal said.

Blood's eyes widened.

Jackal's backhand sent Blood flying across the room, where he crashed into the wall with an angry yell and a new dent in his chest.

"Funny thing about mind controllers…" Jackal said, as got up and started walking forward again. "Not many of them understand the science behind their power. They just think they're god, able to command others to do their bidding…never fully comprehending that their power is little more then a very refined and highly specific telepathy that allows them to manipulate the chemical and electrical signals in the human brain to induce the state of suggestiveness and loyalty needed for proper brainwashing and mind controlling. HOWEVER…such a power has drawbacks. Such as the fact that while controlling organic brains is one thing, controlling will itself is another. For example, controlling machines is a whole different ball game, which is probably why you stuck all that Terminator wannabe junk on you. And even if you get into that area…well, it's one thing to manipulate electrical signals and chemical functions. But…if what lies in someone's head is instead something akin to free-floating particles that still somehow maintain sentience…then control is a considerably thornier issue. And by thornier I mean impossible."

"INSOLENT CHILD!" Blood yelled as he got up, grabbing his robe and yanking it off as he prepared to fight.

"Blood, you want backup…" Scorcher said as fire exploded on her hands.

"NO! STAND DOWN! I will rip this arrogant punk limb from limb with my bare hands!" Blood yelled, as he sprinted at Jackal with great speed and thrust out a fist.

Jackal caught it.

"Been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt."

Blood roared and launched into a rapid-fire flurry of punches. His attacks could have caved in a steel wall.

Jackal dodged and blocked without any seeming affect, deflecting several blows before he grabbed both of Blood's arms and yanked them down to look him in the face.

"Are you trying to hit me, or are we just practicing for a dance?" Jackal asked.

Blood's cyborg eye glowed red and then a red bolt of power flew from it and struck Jackal in the forehead, causing him to stumble back…

Blood's hand plunged into Jackal's chest, a burst of blood coming from the wound as Blood slammed his hand right into Jackal's innards.

"A dance. Your last." Blood said, grinning again as Jackal seemed to weaken, his knees buckling…

And stopping.

"That's a bad place to put your hand."

Blood screamed as Jackal's entire torso shifted and, for a brief moment, actually became a mouth that chomped down on Blood's hand and ripped it off at the stump, even as the wound closed up and the Jackal looked up again.

"My turn to lead."

Jackal's fist transformed into a diamond club as he swung out and smashed a dent in the side of Blood's head, and then spun as his leg shifted and then jackhammered in a literal albeit crude jackhammer shape out with immense force, throwing Blood across the room again. He hit the ground and flipped over, and while he lay there for a bit Jackal approached, snapping his head back and forth, almost like he was preparing to cough something up…

Floral, Zippy, and Gizmo recoiled as Jackal's neck and jaw began to distend, distorting in a grotesque fashion. Oh yes, Jackal knew his science. And he knew how hard complicated rearranging of molecules were. It wasn't hard to shift matter from one pure state to another, but transforming one object into a completely different one was a whole different can of worms. It took a lot of training and effort to master…but when you did, the stuff you could do was truly…

Blood was up and charging again.

And Jackal reared back and spat what he had changed out like he was a cobra spitting venom. Once, it had been Blood's robot hand. But Jackal had taken the basic material and rearranged it, changing a little here, a little there, perfectly putting all the parts back together as he called it up through his body.

Hence, what Jackal spat at Blood was no longer his hand, but a small and very potent bomb. With a magnet.

It clamped on Blood's chest.

"What the hell…!"

The explosion knocked all the Hive members over even as it blew a screaming Blood out through the wall. The teens got up, coughing on the smoke and dust, barely regaining their vision to see Jackal casually following Blood out of the hole he had made.

"…I guess we should follow him?" Juryrig asked.

"Guess so." Mammoth replied.

As the Hive began their 'pursuit', an absolutely furious Blood was pushing his battered and burned but still together body up to his feet. He couldn't believe it. This was worse then that accursed Cyborg. At least he could attribute that defeat to an unexpected side effect of Blood stealing his tech and combining it with his telepathic powers, one he could have never foreseen. But this tattooed child, barely older then his students, just walking in and decimating him like he was a helpless old man rather then one of the most powerful beings on earth (though such an assessment existed mostly in Blood's mind)…such an action could not be tolerated, would NEVER be tolerated, as Blood raised his head, his eyes blazing as he looked across the outstretch of the wide outside area he had been propelled across at the Jackal, who lightly cracked his knuckles.

If Blood had been thinking clearly, he would have contacted the weapons on his school and directed them to rain hell down on the Jackal. But he wasn't thinking clearly, due to his rage and the fact that Jackal had just smashed a large dent in the side of his head, so he did the next best thing, as his arm shifted and transformed. But this wasn't a sonic cannon, this was a high-bore plasma laser, a laser he aimed at the Jackal as he charged it up.

"You want to surrender yet?" Jackal asked.

"BITE MY SHINY METAL ASS!" Blood roared. I told you he wasn't thinking like himself, though that hadn't affected his aim, as he let loose with a powerful blast of red plasma.

Jackal dodged to the side, the explosion detonating to his right, and then he charged at Blood. Blood fired again, and again, and again, but wherever Jackal was pulling his new speed it was enough to avoid his shots, as he closed in on Blood…

Who wasn't done yet. As Jackal swooped in, Blood pressed a button on the side of his laser arm.

The Hive members had all emerged to watch just as Jackal swooped in to strike…and Blood slashed out his arm, firing not this time a burst shot but a focused, concentrated laser beam that swept over Jackal.

He stopped.

The Hive watched.

And then his head fell off.

His body swiftly followed.

"…Whoa." Juryrig said.

"I guess that's why he's the master of the Hive." Jinx commented, as Blood stood up over Jackal's body, a fierce grin on his face at his victory.

"So! You thought you could just walk in and take my school from me! You inferior punk! I am Brother Blood! I am as far beyond your feeble mind as a man is beyond an ant! You never stood a…!"

Jackal's fist buried itself in Brother Blood's gut, and Blood screamed, first in pain, and then again as Jackal's headless body got up, his other arm reaching out and seizing his fallen head by the hair.

"You know what they say…about assumption." The Jackal said as he placed his head back on his stump like it was the most casual thing in the world. Brother Blood looked at him in absolutely disbelief. Jackal smirked cruelly.

"You make an ass out of U and Umption"

Jackal's fist within Blood began to glow.

"…whoever the hell he is."

The explosion blew Blood high into the air, screaming all the way, but even as he flew up Jackal knelt down, power crackling on his legs, and then he leapt up after Blood, following him up, catching up in a second even as he fired off a powerful uppercut that caught Blood in the face and sent him even higher, even as whatever power the Jackal had used to propel himself upward continued to do so.

"Watch this trick!" Jackal said, even as he spun and smashed Blood with another uppercut. "Open part of my body, take the average beam of light, seal it in as I change my insides to a complex series of mirrors, carefully refract the beam over and over and over to increase power…" Jackal said, even as he kept knocking Blood higher and higher with blow after blow. "Add a few special tricks I know, and presto!"

Jackal gave himself a final boost to draw himself level with Blood, even as his chest began to shift.

"You know, if you'd just given me your school, I would have gladly made you a partner. But you had to be your own man. Well, enjoy your independence!" Jackal said, and lightly slapped Blood on the chest. "And your trip."

And the Jackal snapped open his chest, and the beam of light that he had been speaking off, carefully manipulated and changed, flew out, now a gigantic blast of heat and impact, which struck Blood and blew him off into the horizon, the cyborg screaming all the way.

And then the special chemical Jackal had left on Blood's chest via the slap detonated as well, as Blood's form vanished in an explosion off in the distance, the scream abruptly ending.

Jackal landed back on the Hiveathanas, his knees bending slightly at the impact, and then he looked up upon the Hive students, whose expressions ranged from surprised to shocked to impressed to amazed to horrified to various combinations of the five.

Jackal straightened himself, brushed his coat off, and brushed his hair out of his face, as he lifted an arm and gestured in the direction where the final explosion had been.

"Will anyone attempt to fill his shoes?"

Silence.

"Uh…what did you say your name was?" Gizmo asked.

Jackal smirked.

"I am the Jackal!" He declared.

"Uh…ok! All hail the Jackal! Jackal!" Gizmo chanted. Everyone looked at him oddly. "You want him to use us for fodder?"

"Oh yeah yay Jackal/Master Jackal/We love you/Hail The Jackal!"

Jackal chuckled to himself. He definitely liked this world.

_To Be Continued_


	8. Knowledge Is Power I

Chapter 7:

Knowledge Is Power I: The Truth Will Set You Free…

The monitors issued a steady hum that filled the room, a drone Nigel Hastings found peaceful. And not just because loud, shrieking noises in medical facilities often meant something had gone wrong. Because in another life those noises were all Nigel knew, treating badly wounded soldiers on endless battlefields, their lifeblood bleeding onto his hands or their last hot, stinking breaths exhaling into his face. Endless victims, far too many willingly so, of his society's mad lust for war and combat.

Not that human society was much better in a lot of aspects. But at least when he gave out medical treatment now it wasn't always to the piercing buzz of flatlines or the myriad of high, shrieking beeps that led to said flatlines. Indeed, unless he had completely missed his mark (and while Nigel wasn't a doctor for the ages, he wasn't that bad either), the child lying in the bed wouldn't be going into cardiac arrest any time soon.

It was strange. The child looked so fragile lying in the bed, surrounding by the machines. But the phrase "looks can be deceiving" practically _defined_ life in the T-Tower, and this newcomer was no exception. The kid had crashed into the Titans more then a few times in his insanity fueled dash, and yet amazingly he hadn't broken or fractured any bones. True, he had more then a few deep bruises, but considering Blacktrinian medical tech was designed to save creatures that had been nearly cut in half, that was easily taken care of.

However, there were still other problems to consider. Like the exact nature of his lunacy. Noel had theorized it had been due to whatever the boy had experienced during his trip through whatever plane of existence had opened up and dumped him on the Titans' beach, but Nigel was never one to assume. Having drawn blood, Nigel was running tox screens to make sure that whatever had led to the boy's abrupt appearance hadn't involved pumping any drugs into him, especially anything that could be fatal. Nigel had had enough of death in his life. If the Grim Reaper wanted to come for this child under Nigel's eye, he or she would have to pry him from Nigel's claws.

He wasn't seeing anything so far. Though he was hearing something: people entering his room.

"What's the situation Nigel?" Noel asked. Nigel stared through his microscope a few more seconds and then raised his head.

"There doesn't seem to be anything in his blood except blood. No bacteria, no viruses, no nanomachines or anything in that vein. Can't see poisons through a microscope though, so don't relax just yet. But this machine is designed to find the worst stuff first. If it hasn't beeped yet, I doubt there's some cyanide variant coursing through the kid's veins." Nigel said, as he wiped his forehead. Along with Noel, Gar and Tara had entered in the room, and were looking down at Dash's sleeping form.

"You think he'll wake up soon?"

"Might. Might not. Metahuman talents always seem to do the exact opposite of what you predict. He's fast so he'll wake fast, but really he'll sleep longer because he needs to recover from going so fast…and so on. It's up in the air." Nigel said, as one of his machines beeped and he removed some papers from them. "What about your end?"

"Pictures and composition both came back negative. He's not in any of the known data banks. Just to be on the safe side I'm having Oracle run him through the UNKNOWN data banks, but I severely doubt we'll find him in there." Noel said. The unknown data banks were personal files that several heroes kept about information they felt wouldn't be good for the public to see. It really didn't help anyone for the public to know some villain had almost changed evolution and overrun the planet with lizards if he did it in a way that the public never learned of him. A lot of 'evil clones' and hero alternates that the public hadn't had the opportunity to meet were in there as well: no sense having people worry if every time the Flash showed up it was really Zoom in disguise. It was, as the saying went, need to know info.

"Not just that though." Tara said as she turned away from Dash.

"Indeed. I ran him through other databases as well. They ALL came back blank." Noel said. Nigel arched an eyebrow.

"That would be difficult to say the least, even if all we have is a picture."

"I didn't just check the United States. I checked Canada, Britain, parts of Europe, any place that would most likely have produced a Caucasian. Nothing. No records, no files, no information, NOTHING. As far as the Western world is concerned, this kid does not exist."

"Yet he's here." Nigel said, glancing at the bed.

"Right. So we're obvious dealing with something more exotic then the norm. As if his method of arrival didn't make that obvious." Noel said. "But I doubt we can find out any more until he wakes up. So that begs the question of what CAN we do?"

"Well we…" Nigel began, and then a look of annoyance came over his face as he smacked his palm into his forehead and muttered a few words in Blacktrinian.

"What?"

"Something I need…but due to the fact that my plans to reorganize my space keep getting interrupted, it's all the way at the back of a cabinet." Nigel said, pointing to a ground based cupboard. "It'll take me forever to move all the stuff out of the way."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I can't go in otherwise, I'll knock everything over…"

"Then maybe we need someone smaller." Noel said, looking at Tara, who blinked.

"What? Why me?"

"Why not? May as well get SOME use out of that concave gut, considering how often you point it out in regards to how Sophie doesn't have it." Noel said. Nigel's eyes darkened slightly, and a look of sheepish worry crossed Tara's features before she sighed and knelt down next to the cabinet, opening it up.

"Anyone got a flashlight?" She groused, looking into the dark recesses. Much to her surprise, a mini flashlight was in her hands a few seconds later. "Huh, how CONVENIENT. What do you need again?"

Nigel rattled off a word with so many syllables she was amazed he was able to get them all out in one breath.

"Oh really. Is that regular or lite?"

"It's the only yellow bottle in there." Nigel replied. Tara sighed and clamped the flashlight between her teeth as she began exploring the murky recesses within the sideboard.

Beast Boy, as he sometimes did when he was antsy, had turned into a monkey, crawling around the machines a bit, being careful not to disturb anything, before he turned back to his human form, perched on the end of the bed.

"So where are the others?" Noel asked him.

"Vic's putting away the training equipment, seeing if any of the defenses were triggered by speedy here, tech stuff. Rob got the brilliant idea he could teach Cassandra how to play video games."

Noel snorted laughter.

"He'd have better luck teaching her to crochet."

"What's next?" Gar asked. Nigel didn't understand the question, but Noel did.

"If he's a friend, a fellow, then we aid him in any way we can." Noel said.

"And if he's not?" Gar asked.

"If he is an enemy, or is revealed to be one, whatever degree of regret he wishes to bring into our lives…we return it. With interest." Noel replied, his eyes briefly flashing with something dangerous.

"Yeah, but you don't THINK he's an enemy." Gar said, part question and part statement.

"No. No I don't."

"Funny, you sure sounded like you wished he was an enemy for a bit there." Gar said, needling Noel like Noel needled his girlfriend about how she in turn needled Sophie about her weight, which runs us clear out of needles, as Nigel picked up some more papers to look through and Tara continued to feel her way through the cabinet.

"I thrive on challenge. I do not wish it upon us."

"You sure?"

"Ah Gar, you know me better then that." Noel said. "I speak with supreme confidence. Do not confuse that with…arro…gance…" Noel trailed off, as his eyes, attracted by something, drifted off Gar…

As Noel realized Dash wasn't lying down any more.

He was sitting up.

With his eyes open.

As wide as saucers.

"Dude, what's…" Gar said as he twisted to his head to look at what Noel was looking at,

His green furry face proved the trigger.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Dash screamed.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Beast Boy screamed in turn, jumping off the edge of the bed.

"What the…" Nigel said as he peeked around Noel's body.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Dash screamed again at Nigel's gray skinned, fanged countenance.

"Ah!" Nigel started, taking a step back.

THUD. "OWWWWWWWWW!" Tara yelped as she jumped at the noise and banged her head on the top of the cabinet.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Dash screamed once more, as he tried to scramble back, get away from the strange faces…as his sheets came off to expose the thick leather straps that bound his arms. They did their job well and prevented him from going back very far; not like he had anywhere to go except the back of the bed, seeing as how he had two "monsters" between him and the door. The fact that he was tied up hit him and sent his panic into overdrive.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" He screamed once more.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Gar echoed, having not quite recovered from his own fright.

"Ah fer crissakes." Noel cursed, and thrust out a hand. All Dash saw was a flash of white, and then the Shimmer flew into his ear and sent him back into dreamland.

"…Dude…that was…not…called for." Gar said, holding his still pounding chest.

"Now does anyone else see the wisdom of having him restrained? In case he, say, woke up and freaked out and hence couldn't run away and wreck our tower and force us to chase him again and all that?"

"You always do think ahead Noel." Nigel said. "Still, that was hardly good results."

"Yes, that went about as poorly as it could have." Noel commented, and turned to Tara as she emerged from the cabinet, clutching her head. "You ok there Tara?"

"Owowowowow." Tara muttered, rubbing her crown. "What happened?"

"Our guest woke up. Apparently he didn't much like what he found." Nigel said, as he walked to the front of the bed. "Suggestions?"

"Yeah, we need someone more normal looking when he wakes up next. Fortunately, I have the perfect candidate." Noel said.

* * *

"You know, for the world famous Teen Titans, you sure seem to be subcontracting a lot of your work today." Sophie commented. "'Go turn into bats and make the kid run a certain direction,' Sophie. 'Go sit with him while he wakes up,' Sophie. What's next? 'The Lord of the Night is back in town, so do a tap dance to distract him, Sophie?' I'm never going to get any work done at this rate." 

"Believe me Sophie, we can always help you with paperwork. But we've got a scared little boy in there who clearly doesn't have a clue where he is, and you're the most normal looking out of all of us."

"Yeesh. You'd think he'd never seen a green guy and a Blacktrinian before." Rob said. Noel glanced at him. "He obviously has superpowers! He's GOT to have seen some weirdness!"

"Yes, but at the moment we need normalcy, not weirdness. And you're the most normal looking Sophie."

"A-HEM." Tara coughed.

"You know what I mean Blondie. We need someone who looks, uh…huggable." Noel said, grasping for a word.

"Lot to…" Tara began.

"Zip it!" Noel said.

"But…"

"Don't make me go through the entire bit. I'm not as good a comedian as Mr. Myers." Noel said.

"What do we know about him?" Sophie asked.

"That he exists and that he runs fast." Nigel replied.

"That's it?"

"Unfortunately he didn't come with a pamphlet that says, 'Hi, I'm So and So! If I pop out of a dimensional warp, here's what to do…'" Noel snarked.

Rob commented, "What, he didn't? That's just irresponsible parenting."

Noel gave Rob a blank stare. "You have one of those?"

Rob looked at Noel as if he had just said that gravity makes things move down. "Yes, I do. Wanna see it?"

"No, we have other things to worry about right now. Besides, knowing you it'd be instructions about how you like to have your belly rubbed every day at five o'clock and that you don't like dry kibble."

Rob blinked. "That's surprisingly close to what's there, actually…"

"Rob, this isn't about you. Now Sophie, are you willing to give us a hand?"

"Fine." Sophie groused. "Go get me some cookies and milk."

"You heard the lady Rob." Noel said.

"What? Why do I have to do it?"

"Because every time I organize the cabinet you, Gar, Tara, and Victor always DE-organize it. We need speed here, and I can't waste time searching."

"Right, fine fine. Shall I fetch you a beer while I'm at it?"

"You drink alcohol? At this time of day?" Cassandra asked, back in full costume with her mask pulled down. Rob goggled at the Asian, unable to believe she couldn't get such obvious sarcasm.

"No. Rob was just leaving too." Noel said. Rob grumbled and did what he was asked, heading back and handing her requested items over to Sophie. Noel and Nigel accompanied her in just in case the child had somehow woken up and gotten out of his restraints, but he was still dozing in his bed. Nigel and Noel left Sophie sitting at the bedside with promises that they'd all be waiting outside if trouble reared its ugly head.

And so Sophie sat, looking at the sleeping child and thinking thoughts along Nigel's bent for several minutes before Dash began to stir.

"Mmmmmm…" Dash muttered. "I don't want to go to school Mommy…I stopped pranking Mr. Kropp but he's still blaming me…" Dash said, as his eyes fluttered open.

And realized that he wasn't in his room.

And once that realization came to him, it all came flooding back.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Dash screamed as he tried to scramble away again, from the strange faces and the…

"Kid! Kid, it's ok." Said a female voice as a soft pair of hands fell on his shoulders. "Don't panic. You're ok. You're safe."

"Ahhhhh, ahhh…ahhh…" Dash spat out as his eyes snapped all over the place, finally settling on Sophie. "Ah…" He went, not sure what else to say. It wasn't like she looked strange enough for him to start screaming again.

"You're ok. Calm down. Calm down." Sophie said.

"Who are you?"

"My name's Sophie. You're not in any danger. Calm down."

"Not in…ah!" Dash said, as he tried to move his arm and was reminded of the restraint. "Where am I? Who are you? If I'm not in any danger why am I tied up?"

"You're, um, tied up for your own safety." Sophie sputtered.

"Oh please, that's the oldest excuse in the book!"

"No actually, I believe that's 'You're tied up because I want you to be tied up'." Sophie said, saying the first thing that came to mind.

Strangely, it actually seemed to get through, as Dash jerked away and looked around some more.

"You don't have to be afraid. You're safe." Sophie repeated.

"How did I get here?"

"You don't remember?"

"The last thing I remember was Schism's power suddenly getting supercharged and then…" Dash said, as he tried to claw through the darkness that lay within his head…and found only more darkness. His memory was a complete blank.

"We, uh, found you on our beach."

"Where am I?"

"You're in Jump City."

"Where?"

"Jump City."

"Where?"

"Jump City. Florida."

"I've never heard of it."

"Where are you from?"

"Metroville."

"What state is that in?"

Dash told her.

"I can't say I've ever heard of that city…" Sophie said as she sat back.

Dash, despite himself, relaxed a bit more, even though the lessons his parents had repeatedly drilled into him kept rattling around in his head. And since he still wasn't sure if he was in a hostile situation, it would be best if he kept thinking like he was.

So he did what his parents had told him if he was ever kidnapped. 1) Keep your kidnapper talking, and 2) Test the restraints.

Though Part 2 didn't seem to be bearing any fruit. The leather fetters that encased his arms didn't seem to have any give whatsoever. If this WAS an elaborate villain plan, he was in real trouble.

"Ok…you say we're in Jump City. Where in this supposed city?"

"You're in Titans Tower."

"Where?"

Sophie couldn't tell if the child was bluffing or really had no idea who they were. She'd go with the latter for now.

"Titans Tower. Headquarters of the Teen Titans. You saw a few of them earlier. Though they probably looked strange to you."

"Strange? One was a monster!"

Sophie winced inwardly.

"Actually he's an alien. You know, extraterrestrial? He may look nasty but that's just the surface. He's actually the doctor that treated you."

"That weirdo tied me up?"

Sophie winced again.

"Under orders. We had to make sure you weren't going to hurt yourself."

"Why would I do that?"

"Well, when you came out…" Sophie said, and briefly explained to Dash his crazed run around Titans Island.

"…I did that?"

"Yes."

"I don't remember any of it."

"You appeared to be in an altered state of some kind, so that's not surprising."

"Are you sure I did that?"

"Feel your legs if you doubt me."

"Wha…owwwwwwwwwww." Dash said, as he tried to move one leg, only to have a burning wave of weariness shoot up it. And Dash had overextended himself enough to know the difference between an injured muscle and a severely worn out one. Another problem if this was an elaborate ruse: even if he got free he'd barely be able to walk, much less run.

"We fixed you up, but it's hard to get absolutes in this world."

"…Ok. Say you're telling the truth. Who did this?"

"The Teen Titans."

"Who are they?"

"The group that protects this city."

"Are they Supers?"

"Supers?"

"You know, Supers!"

"Do you mean metahumans?"

"Do mettahumains have special powers and stuff?"

"Yes…oh." Sophie said. "Yes, they're Supers."

"I never heard of any Teen Titans."

"We never heard of you either."

"Really. Poor you. I'm the Dash." Dash said, as he briefly slipped into his usual cockiness…

And then a cold realization slammed into him, as he remembered whom he usually said that to…and the fact they weren't there.

"OH MY GOD! MOM! DAD! VIOLET!" Dash yelled, surging off the bed and startling Sophie, who was just about to make a joke on whether she should call him Dash or The.

"What?" She said instead.

"Where's my family? Where are they? Where?" Dash said, in a sudden panic.

"Um, Dash! Please keep calm!"

"Where's my family?"

"Your family?"

"Yes!"

"…You were the only one who arrived on our beach Dash. We didn't find anyone else." Sophie said.

Dash's face screwed up, and Sophie's heart went out to him. He was obviously on the cusp of adolescence, but still a child in many ways, and the fact that he was obviously terrified at the concept of being alone.

"…They're not here…?"

"…No Dash. We didn't find a trace of them."

"But…where could they be?"

"I…I don't know Dash."

Dash looked pleadingly at Sophie.

"Please…can you find them?"

"……………I'll try. You just wait here." Sophie said, and headed out of the room.

"I'm afraid we're in the dark as much as you Sophie. He was the only one who came out of that portal. And we haven't gotten any reports of any similar strangeness." Noel said.

Sophie bit her lip and cast a worried look at the closed door. _We already have too many orphans around here as is… _"Then where do you think his family is?"

"Beats me, but no need to worry about that now. Go back in there and reassure him that we'll look for his family. I'm pretty sure he's just a lost kid now, but I'd like a little more info if you could manage to get it out of him." Noel said.

Dash looked a little calmer when Sophie returned to his side.

"I told my friends about your family. They said they'd start searching immediately."

"Thank you." Dash replied. "So…um…"

"Sophie. I'm Sophie."

"Sophie. Look, you say you're trying to help me, that I landed on the beach of a Supers headquarters, so I was wondering…could you untie me?"

Sophie stared.

"Come on! If you're really good guys, you shouldn't have a problem with it!"

"We don't. The problem is Dash, we have no idea what YOU will do."

"Why would I do anything bad?"

"…I suppose…" Sophie said. "Ok Dash, I'll untie you. But I'm giving you fair warning. I am giving you my trust. Violate it, and you'll find a group of very unhappy people on the other side of that door. And they all have Molecular Deceleration Projectile Devices." Sophie said, making the last bit up on the spot.

"They have what?"

"Guns that will slow you down."

"Heh. Miss, even if I wanted to run, my legs already feel like they're going to fall off."

"Maybe. But remember my words." Sophie said, as she reached over and began undoing Dash's arm straps.

In the end, nothing happened. Dash didn't run off or punch her or bite her or any other kind of unpleasantness.

"Thanks." Dash said, as he rubbed his wrists, and then his stomach growled. Loudly. "Ow…so hungry…"

"Oh. Here." Sophie said, offering the cookies.

They were literally gone in seconds, as Dash gobbled down the whole box. Sophie arched an eyebrow. He took the proffered milk jug and drank most of it as well, letting loose a satisfied burp.

"Glad to know you found that filling." Sophie commented.

"Thanks!"

"You're welcome."

"So…you say you're all Supers…but…you don't look like a Super." Dash said.

"Uh…I'm not…well I am…I'm...not on the team. I'm just a guest."

"Then why did you wake me up?"

"Because you screamed when you saw other, actual members of the Titans."

"Oh yeah, right." Dash said. "…Wait, how do I know you're not the only one and what I saw before were just holograms designed to lull me into a false sense of security for you?"

"What?"

"Are you sure you're not a villain?"

"Dash, why would you still think that?"

"Villains always have complicated plans!"

"But are they needlessly complicated?"

"Usually!"

Sophie facevaulted.

"Yikes! What the heck was that?"

"A quirk your world and mine don't seem to share." Sophie said as she got up.

"My world?"

"Look Dash, if it makes you feel any better, shall I call some of the other Titans in? So you know I'm telling the truth? And if you panic and try and run, you have no one to blame but yourself."

"Is the weird gray one coming in?"

"…Maybe we'll start smaller then that." Sophie said, as she heard the door open. Noel had indicated he was listening in to their conversation before, and it was pretty clear that was the case when Tara and Cassandra walked in.

Oddly, it was the solemn Cassandra that finally made Dash believe that he was among people who wanted to help him. Or rather, it was her elaborate black costume complete with cape. It was the outfit only a Super could pull off, and Cassandra did so.

"…Is this an all girl team?" He asked.

"You wish kid." Terra said, plopping down next to Dash. "I'm Terra. What's up?"

"You. Man, you're tall."

"I'm also taken."

"Awwwwwwwwww." Dash said, finally getting back to his old self despite worries over his parents. He looked at Cassandra, who nodded to him.

"Nice costume, but don't you know capes are a bad idea?"

"…What?" Cassandra asked.

"You know, they get stuck on stuff! Like…whirlwinds!"

"I do not normally deal with such weather phenomena." Cassandra replied.

"Are you a robot?"

"No."

"You sound like one."

"I'm not a robot."

"Oh. Well good for you then." Dash said, looking at the costume. "What's that, a bat outline? What are you, Batgirl?"

"Yes actually."

"…What kind of a name is Batgirl?"

"What kind of a name is The Dash?" Noel said as he popped out from behind Batgirl.

"AHHHHH! A GIANT Q-TIP!" Dash yelled. Terra and Sophie snorted laughter: Noel just looked annoyed.

"Hello Dash. I'm the leader of the Titans. Name's Savior."

Rob poked his head in for a moment. "TEMPORARY leader, thank you very much!" Noel didn't say a word as he shoved the protesting teen back out the door.

"Who was that?" Dash asked.

"A nuisance." Savior replied.

"…Ok. Your name is Savior?"

"Yes it's pretentious, god, I'd like to meet someone who says it isn't!" Noel groused.

"No, I think it's cool!"

"What? Really? Oh."

"Do you need me any more?" Cassandra asked.

"No Cassandra, you're fine. You can go do…whatever."

"I'll go out in the city, get the layout. I have a feeling I'll be here for a few days if we have to find this kid's family." Batgirl said as she left, walking past Gauntlet, who was coming in again.

"Whether I'm a nuisance or not is a matter of opinion." He said to Noel.

"More like the opinion of someone who matters."

"Ohhhhh. One of dez daze Alice, POW! To dah moon!" Gauntlet said, waving a fist. "Hey kid, I'm Gauntlet, nice to meetcha."

"You're part of the team?"

"Yes!" Gauntlet said, cutting Noel off before he could make another snarky comment.

"Where's your costume?"

"This is my costume."

"That's your costume? That's not much of a costume."

"He's special." Noel said with a slight smirk.

"Seeing how we have company I'm going to take that as a compliment." Rob said. "I mean, some of us have to make do with what we have. We can't all have nice red outfits with matching…black…" Rob said as he trailed off, as a look of what Noel could have characterized as horrified amazement came over his face.

"What?" Dash asked.

"Something wrong Rob?" Noel asked.

"…Sweet mother of…" Rob whispered to himself, and then turned and ran full tilt out of the room.

"…Is he usually this way?" Dash asked.

"No he's acting more normal then usual." Noel said. "Well since you're our guest you may as well meet the rest of the gang."

Though Dash took meeting Beast Boy in stride (especially after he turned into a kitten and gave Dash 'the look'), and he found Cyborg cool, he was still clearly disturbed by Nigel, especially after seeing that his doctor had claws. Noel's demonstration that Nigel had very fine control of the claws, first by juggling oranges and then picking Noel up by the throat (an idea that came from Gar and Tara, and one Noel grudgingly did not veto so he could keep Dash calm), seemed to placate him, and Nigel was smart enough to have drawn blood and other such unpleasantness while Dash was unconscious.

"You seem like you'll be ok." Nigel said, and then retreated to finish up the tests.

"Which leads us to another problem: your missing family." Noel said, having retrieved a pad of paper from somewhere. Dash looked a bit stricken, in the way of people who have a problem but are not thinking about it for their own peace of mind. "Now Dash, your missing family most likely ties into how you arrived here, so I have to ask you some questions. A lot of questions actually. So we can search as best we can."

Dash looked doubting.

"Dash, we're not going to betray you. What would the point be?"

"I suppose." Dash said, as he ate another cookie.

"All right then. First off, what's your real name?"

"I can't tell you."

"You can't?" Noel asked.

"No." Dash said, as he again reverted to his mom and dad's teachings. As his mom had said once, "Your identity is your most valued possession. Protect it."

"Dash, you're among friends here."

"…I just…"

"Noel."

"What?"

"My name is Noel." Savior said. Considering the pieces that had already fallen into place, Noel didn't see any danger giving Dash his first name.

"Gar." Beast Boy said immediately.

"Tara, that's T-A-R-A. Yeah I know." Tara said, smirking.

"Victor." Cyborg said.

"Nigel." Nigel said, as he poked his head back, waved, and then resumed his work.

"You're not in any danger Dash. If not for your sake, then your family's, you can trust us."

Dash looked around.

"…Ok." He said. "My name IS Dash."

"Your real name is the same as your code name?" Noel said incredulously.

"Well my name is technically Dashiell, but my mom only calls me that when she's angry. So I've always been Dash. The Dash. The Dash am I." Dash said, and wiggled his eyebrows at Tara again.

"Still taken."

"By me." Gar added. Dash looked embarrassed, while Noel marveled over Dash's ability to go from worried child to cocky pre-teen who was probably just starting to fully come into the rush of hormones that began at that time in life.

"Um, well…my name's Dash. Dash Parr."

"You really might want to consider getting a new codename."

"Heck no. I'm the Dash. Always have been, always will be."

"Ok then. What about your family?"

And Dash started talking, and literally found everything he knew spilling from his lips. He told them everything he had learned from library books, his parents, and Lucius about the glory days of Supers (which wasn't that much but was enough), to their disbanding and concealment, of how as a child of Supers he and his siblings had been born with powers rather then manifesting them later in life, of how boring his life had been with the need to hide his powers, of Buddy Pine and his emergence as Syndrome, with the little background he'd learned and what Pine had done both to Supers and his family. He talked about how after Syndrome's death the Supers had begun to re-emerge, lead by his family, known collectively as the Incredibles…and he spoke of Schism, of how they had fought before, and how they had fought again…and how something had gone wrong.

"His warp went nuts. It never had suction powers before…and well, the last thing I remember is trying to hang on…and then I woke up here." Dash said. The whole spiel had taken nearly forty minutes.

Noel looked up from the several pages of notes he had scribbled. Cyborg had had to leave during Dash's spiel, more technical stuff, and Noel wished he hadn't. He would have been a great help.

"Nigel, would you mind telling Dash what happened when he showed up on our beach?" Noel asked. Dash looked nervous again, but when Nigel came over and launched into the story of what Dash had done, spinning it so it was almost a comedy and not a deadly situation that could have killed the young teen, Dash relaxed again, while Noel puzzled over his taken notes.

"And we brought you in here. The rest you know." Nigel said.

"You're sure I was nuts?"

"I think it was a side effect of whatever happened when you went into Schism's warp. The human brain is designed to interpret data in a certain way, and if there's a kind of data that it just can't handle…well, it's like running a modern computer game on a fifteen year old system. It doesn't work out very well." Noel said.

"But…that still doesn't explain what happened to me. How I ended up here." Dash said.

"I'm getting to that. Nigel, could you fetch me a large piece of paper?"

"On it." Nigel said.

"Now Dash, as we have said, we don't know each other. To the extreme. We've never heard of any group known as the Incredibles, or a Syndrome. We do have an Elastigirl here, but she's clearly not related to your mother. And likewise you have never heard of the Justice League, or us, or even Superman."

"Nope."

"So the question is…why? That answer also ties into what happened." Noel said, as Nigel returned with a large canvas with paper on it. "This will take some explanation…to start with Dash, have you ever heard of time travel?"

"Going back and forth through time, Marty Mcfly, stuff like that."

"Yes. Now in theory going forward in time is somewhat possible: the faster you go the slower time goes for you, so if you go really fast for a while a few weeks may pass for you but a few years may pass for everyone else…but going backwards is considerably more difficult." Noel said. He didn't say impossible, because he knew that wasn't the case. "Anyway, backwards time travel has two theories. One is the Grandfather Paradox theory: if you went back in time and killed your grandfather, you wouldn't exist, but if you don't exist who went back in time and killed your grandfather, paradox, blah blah, that's not important. It's the other theory of time travel we're starting with: The Parallel Universe theory. That is, if you go back in time and change something, instead of altering your time, you cause a 'split' from the original timeline, in essence another line like so." Noel said, as he drew a line, two dots, and then another line extending from the left hand dot. "Now the theory continues with other hypotheses on whether you would just return to your timeline when you went back to the future and the altered one would just go on its merry way, or you would return to the altered timeline, and so on, and so on. But…if we examine this theory in depth, it makes you realize that every time you make a decision, you potentially create a new timeline. If that's the case, every person potentially creates BILLIONS of new timelines just living their lives. And even if someone goes back and alters history, there's no guarantee the changes will be all that drastic. So, in assuming that the Parallel Universe theory is true, we must lump all the microscopic changes in with each other. We'll call this a Super String." Noel says as he flipped the top piece of paper over and drew another line. "Ok, here's our Super String. It's got ALL the possible parallel universes combined, the vigintillions of 'normal' ones where the differences are so small they may as well not exist and all the ones which do have noticeable differences. Changes in history, evil twins, the stuff our breed tends to run into. I'm sure you've seen some weird stuff."

"Yeah."

"But at the same time, all of these pockets of existence are relatively the same. All the splits haven't gone very far. YET." Noel said. "Now, let's go way back along the Super String. Let's say we had another split timeline. Except this timeline had another, and another, and another…and it built on itself. By the time that this split had reached the same time period of our originally examined Super String, it has changed so much that the only similarities are large ones. The Earth's still here, humans are still dominant…but none of the unique figures you know exist. An entirely different set exists in their place. This isn't a parallel universe, it's an alternate universe. Essentially, same as it never was."

"My brain is leaking out my ears." Gar complained.

"Are you confused Dash?" Noel asked.

"…No, it's making sense to me."

"All right. So by this theory, we can assume that at one point, far far far far far FAR back in time, our universes were the same. But at some point we split, and the differences are now drastic. Here is OUR Super String." Noel said, drawing a second. "Now, an interesting factor in this is that each String seems to have a core of some kind, a 'central' existence from which all the others are derived from. It's theorized that these central existences are the ones that usually relate the most to each other. Dash, who was your first President?"

"George Washington."

"Exactly, so was ours. How many world wars were fought in your world?"

"Two."

"Same here. So as you can see, our worlds are related on a fair amount of levels, but on other levels, we have no relation whatsoever. Now the kicker." Noel said. "As mentioned, these Super Strings are supposedly formed when the theory of parallel timelines expands to the point where split off timelines can become timelines in and of themselves. By that theory we could assume that in the very beginning there was only one single, solitary timeline. But changes came and it split and blah blah blah. The thing is, while in theory our timelines are linked, this is only in the most tenuous sense. There should be no way from one to the other. At least, going by the current laws of physics. But as you might know Dash, the laws of physics are often anything but in our world."

"Yeah."

"Your villain known as Schism could open holes in reality, allowing him to instantly cross from one place to another. Defiance of physics on a small scale. You claim what happened with Schism's warp just happened? There was no indication of anything big?"

"Even Schism didn't seem to know what was going on."

"All right then. Whatever happened, it's clear something interfered. We'll call it the X-Factor for now. Schism was attempting a supercharged warp that would move your family away from him at a greater distance so he could escape. However, that greater distance could probably be measured in miles, and not in very large increments at that. Then the X-Factor, whatever it was, interfered…and basically, it gave Schism what he wanted, to a degree far greater then he could have expected. It multiplied the warp by an incalculable amount. And when that happened…"

"It brought me here."

"It did." Noel said. "Whatever it was, it charged his warp with so much power that it managed to open a hole between one string and another. Rather then a warp from one place in your world to another some miles distant, it created a warp so powerful it was able to form a journey across time, space, and reality. No wonder you came out nuts: no human brain is designed to make a journey like that. But fortunately, you ended up here, with people who could help you. And that…is pretty much it." Noel said. "Questions? Comments?"

"Well…if Dash ended up here, shouldn't his family have done so as well?" Sophie asked. Dash looked stricken again.

"Uh…" Noel said, as certain aspects of his explanation he had left out came to the forefront of his mind. "There's no guarantee that they followed him through the warp…"

"Yes there is. My mom wouldn't care if hell swallowed me, she'd go after me. My dad as well." Dash said.

"Well…" Noel said, as he tried to dance around the question. "As said this kind of trip screws with space and time, maybe since you went first you arrived first and the others just haven't…arrived yet…" Noel stammered, and then figured the best way to answer this question would be with another question. "Besides your family, which we will do our best to find, does anyone have anything else to say about the explanation?"

"Yes, pseudoscience is fun!" Came Rob's voice as he suddenly popped up next to Noel, startling him.

"What are you doing back? I was hoping you'd found something shiny to play with." Noel commented.

"I'm back because I know who you are!" Rob said, pointing at Dash. "Your name is Dashiell "The Dash" Parr, son of Bob and Helen Parr! You have a annoying older sister named Violet and a baby brother named Jack Jack, you all had to hide your powers because the government banned Supers because of lawsuits, and then you fought a guy called Buddy Pine aka Syndrome who was obsessed with destroying Supers because your dad turned his offer to be his ward down!"

"…Well yeah…I just told everyone that." Dash said. Rob's eyes goggled.

"What? You didn't refuse to reveal any information? Didn't you listen to your mother in…"

"Rob, what's going on? This should hardly be news." Noel said.

"But I just revealed everything about him! Don't you want to know why?" Rob asked.

"Because you overheard it on the com link?"

"What? No! I…"

"Noel, you will find my family, right?" Dash asked.

Rob was cut off from his protest when he saw the look in Noel's eye. He knew that look too well. The "I could tell him a sweet lie, but I think honesty is the best policy even if honesty will rip his heart out and stomp on it and extinguish all hope because it's better to have the truth then hope and all kids have to learn eventually how nasty the world is…" expression that meant that Noel was going to tell him exactly what he theorized, and what he theorized wasn't good.

"Yes he will! In fact I'm going to give him a pep talk right now so he'll be good and motivated!" Rob said, and before Noel knew what was going on Rob was shoving him out the door.

"Was that necessary?" Noel asked as Rob slammed the door behind him.

"Oh yes. I know that look Noel. Whatever you were going to tell him, don't. He doesn't need to hear it. What were you going to say, the odds against finding his family weren't good?"

"They're not Rob."

"Dammit Noel, hope is not like Chinese food, even if you think it's hopeless! Besides, we're superheroes! Our lives are about defying the odds!"

"Rob, weren't you listening when I gave my explanation? You think sudden dimensional warps between different realms of existence, especially unplanned ones, are like getting on a bus and going from point A to point B? It's not! There is absolutely no way to know just where such a warp could take you! It may have brought Dash HERE, but who says it'll do the same with his family? Nothing! They could end up in an entirely different universe!"

"Noel I didn't…"

"And even if they all come here, who says it's all to the same spot? You think there's a guiding hand behind forces like these? No, there isn't! How do we know they won't end up in Texas? Or Los Angeles? Or Delaware? Or Canada? Or Spain? Or the Amazon River? Or the Indian Ocean? Or the atmosphere? On Neptune? On friggin' Alpha Centari? We don't! This is a damn big universe Rob, and there's a lot of places for people flung into it to end up! And I'd hate to make promises to him if the odds are his family is floating dead in hard vacuum somewhere, never to be found!"

"You're not listening to me Noel. I'm trying to say I didn't listen in to your conversation with Dash."

"You had to. How else could you have known that stuff?"

"Oh, if you think that stuff about Super Strings and X-Factors was complex, this is gonna blow your freakin' mind." Rob said.

"What are you talking about Rob?"

"Don't you remember Noel? The Dash? Syndrome? The Incredibles?"

"What?"

"Geez." Rob said, as he yanked a small plastic box from under his shirt from where it was tucked in his pants and held it in front of Noel. "IT'S A FREAKING MOVIE!"

_To Be Continued_


	9. Knowledge Is Power II

Chapter 8:

Knowledge is Power II: …But Exposition Weighs You Down

A box may have just changed everything.

Indeed, it was searching for that box that had delayed Rob for so long.

But in another Earth, across the voids between universes, another man was performing his own search. His was considerably slower and neater though, and not just out of respect. It was as if the longer he put off finding the sheet he was hunting for, the more he could deny it existed, that he had a leg to stand on.

But after nearly four hours of searching and reading, he found it.

His heart sank lower and lower as he read the papers, eventually ending up several feet underground from the way he was feeling. Haze hadn't been lying. It was all there, signed by Bob and Helen. Though considering what the contract essentially agreed to, Lucius now knew for sure that they hadn't signed it knowing what was in it. It must have been buried in some other, more benign paperwork, that the Parrs had rapidly signed, just wanting to get it done, never realizing what they had been agreeing to…

What Lucius was now helpless to stop.

It was nearly half an hour later when he left the house, having put back all the papers in a daze, still feeling a sense of surrealism. He'd never thought the government always had the people's best interests at heart, but he'd never been prone to believing that they were…

His cell phone rang.

Lucius answered it, already knowing who was on the other line.

"I trust you found it." Haze's voice spoke. There was no arrogance in the tone, just a calm declaration. It made Lucius mad anyway, as his lips skinned back from his teeth.

"You bastard. Are you having me watched?"

"No. We are having the Parrs' house watched. In case they return. You don't seem to understand Mr. Best. I am not your enemy. I am not sitting on some throne twirling my mustache and cackling at the thought that the Parrs will never return so we can do what is outlined in that contract. I want the Parrs to return. I want them to raise that boy well, so one day he can do great things for the human race. But in this current situation, I am simply afraid I cannot allow it to continue if the Parrs do not return soon."

"You're not afraid of anything. You're not the one who will…"

"Mr. Best, be quiet. Stop futilely protesting things you do not understand."

"I understand human rights, that you can't just define a person by a talent they possess, that you can't stick a label on Jack-Jack and then change it because…"

"I wish the atomic bomb had never been invented."

The sudden change of topic threw Lucius.

"What?"

"I really do. If it took Einstein's erasure from history, I would accept it. I would make do without the theories he discovered, if only I could take back what other men used to make with them. Because once it was done, we couldn't take it back. Things would be so much better if only one country had ever learned the secret, knew the method behind that madness. But something like what Einstein discovered was impossible to keep. And it wasn't kept. And for fifty years two countries stared at each other, wondering if the other side would blink, never knowing just what the other would do…or rather, what they would do, Mr. Best. Say what you will about this country, its far from being without sin. But the fact remains in the closing days of World War II, we liberated countries from the Nazis. The communists did not. To keep them from doing worse, we had to do a lot of bad things. All because we could never be sure what they would do. Because of what we discovered, and in that discovery, what we allowed them to have and keep."

"What's your point man? You calling me a communist because I actually care about Jack-Jack?"

"No. I have no desire and no right to judge you on your feelings. But your feelings are the problem, Mr. Best. You cannot see past the child. I, who have no such personal connections, can see the big picture. That child is powerful, Mr. Best. Age and experience will bring only more power. But the timing on this incident could not be worse. He's reached the age when the first basic, deepest lessons in life are beginning, the building blocks that will define who you are. And what has happened? His whole family has disappeared. For all we know, forever."

"But…"

"I do not care about your skill as a parent Mr. Best. It does not matter. All that matters is that that child, that powerful child, is going to grow up with his deepest memory being that his parents and siblings left him, abandoned him. And no matter how much you and your wife or any therapists you may use say so, he is always going to believe in some part of him that this was his fault. And he is going to learn that despite all his power, all he can do, he can't do the one thing he wants most of all. He can't bring them back. Such thoughts lead to resentment. And when you combine resentment with such power, rage is not far behind. With rage comes irrationality, and irrationality with power like Jack-Jack Parr's brings horrors that I fear to contemplate."

"There is NO GUARANTEE that ANY of that will happen."

"No Mr. Best. But there is a possibility. Just like the possibility that hung over our heads for decades that the world was one flock of geese on a radar screen from nuclear annihilation. I, and my fellows, could not do anything about that possibility. But this possibility, we can. And we will. I am sorry Mr. Best. But I would rather sacrifice the specialness of one child, and how it might aid this country one day, then risk the chance that said specialness might be turned against us."

Lucius was speechless. Not with rage, though that was part of it, but because part of his brain, a part he loathed but couldn't shut up, a part of pure logic, thought Haze was right.

"We have decided to give the Parrs another 72 hours." Haze said. "If they do not return by then, we will take the child. If we do, do not worry. He will be returned to you. If you must, you will raise him. Perhaps you will even do a good job."

"What? That's too soon!"

"Sooner is better in this world Mr. Best. And remember, it will go much better if you do not resist. But whether you do or not Mr. Best, this matter is settled. Maybe you can't see the forest for the trees, but I can."

The line went dead.

Lucius found himself taking the phone away, staring out at the streets, wondering where the dead eyes who seemingly held judgment over Jack-Jack's future peered from, and if it even mattered if he knew.

* * *

Noel's eyes weren't dead. They were anything but: they were filled with incredulous confusion. 

"…Rob, that's a blank DVD box."

"No, don't you see, it WASN'T LIKE THAT." Rob said, as he opened up the box.

"Rob that's a blank DVD too."

"It wasn't before! It was an actual, real film. Called the Incredibles. A CGI film from Pixar, which had a character named Dashiell Parr, who called himself The Dash, and who is in our hospital bed right now eating cookies and hitting on Tara!"

"Rob, what the hell are you babbling about?"

"Noel, what are YOU babbling about? Don't you remember when I dragged you all to the theatre in November?"

Noel's eyes were blank.

"NOEL, THIS FILM EXISTED! It was a critic's darling, it was No 1 at the box office for two weeks, it grossed 260 million dollars, IT WON A FRIGGIN' OSCAR FOR BEST ANIMATED FILM OF 2004! HOW CAN YOU NOT REMEMBER IT?"

Noel's eyes looked hopelessly lost.

"Rob…are you seriously saying…that a cartoon…"

"Oh no, you're not going to accuse me of being crazy! I know I'm not crazy! This was a film! And a lot of other stuff! All of which has disappeared from my room!"

"Stuff?"

"I had a poster! Action figures! A novelization! I had a freakin' cereal box, and it's all vanished! The only reason I found this was because it's the only blank DVD in my collection! Noel, this film is real, and there is a character from it in our medical ward! I am not crazy!"

"Well…Rob…"

"I'm not crazy!"

"Well…Rob, I know you're not a liar. Not about important stuff anyway. But…Rob, really, think of it from my perspective. You come in with a blank DVD and claim there was a movie, and…I'm going to assume that your little outburst of knowledge was because you knew it from watching the film, instead of listening in on us?"

"Yes! That's it exactly!"

"…Rob…I don't want to think you're crazy."

"So you do think I'm crazy!"

"ROB, ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO YOURSELF?" Noel said. "I've said that I don't think you're a liar…but that leaves three options. You are either grossly mistaken, and from your passion you certainly don't think you are, you're crazy, or…geez Rob, a film coming to life?"

"Hey, I heard you support this!"

"What?"

"One of your little pondering speeches, on how you read that people who write and create don't actually conceive of stuff in their head, but somehow see into another dimension where the stuff really exists, and draw their creation from it, in theory telling the life story of…"

"Rob, that was a nice flight of fancy, but surely you don't give it any credibility."

"Why not?"

"Why not? You really want to open that kind of crack in your thinking Rob? Creation comes from seeing alternate universes? Such things can cross over into reality as we know it? Rob, do you have ANY IDEA how DANGEROUS that kind of thinking is?"

"What?"

"Think of it Rob! That guy's from a movie? Movies and books and comics and all that are from seeing alternate dimensions? How do we know that OUR life isn't spewing from some crazy's imagination, our whole existence nothing more then ink on a page or data on a screen? Do you like the concept that we're just puppets that jerk and dance to the whims of some scribbling lunatic?"

"It would explain a lot of the strangeness in our life."

"Strangeness! Do you like the idea that you're not in control of your actions? That you don't choose what you do, someone else does? Do you like the idea that your bad luck with women comes from some jerk that thinks it's funny that you always fail with the fairer sex? That all the misery visited on our heads is due to some button-mashing Yoohoo inhaling cruel sadistic fuck that thinks that making us suffer is necessary for DRAMA? Do you want to think that way? Because I sure don't! And that exclusion includes things like movies coming to life!"

"Noel, there was a film called the Incredibles!"

"And maybe it was just a coincidence."

"But…"

"Rob, drop it. And don't say anything to Dash or anyone else. Whatever the case may be, we have to try and help that kid find his family. We don't need the additional hassle of someone interjecting deep questions about our existence. Now either make yourself useful or get out of the way, I need to ask Dash a few more questions." Noel said, as he opened the door to the room Dash was in and closed it behind him, leaving Rob in the hallway.

"…I don't get it." Rob said to himself, as he began to pace. "I KNOW I saw that film, Noel and I don't agree often but he would get NOTHING out of denying it exists, but if he really can't remember then…what the hell?" Rob said, as he stared at the blank box. "Man, now I know how Big Bird felt."

Silence befell Rob for a second.

"Ok…gotta think. Assuming I am right…how come I know and Noel doesn't? If I asked anyone else, would they know? I mean, why is my box blank? Noel was talking about fundamental questions of reality, maybe reality is trying to protect itself. Maybe by Dash being here reality feels the need to blank out the fact that he existed in a fictional sense since he is now here in an actual, physical sense…but if that is the case how far spread is it? Has the whole world forgotten the Incredibles? Or just my teammates? Must examine that possibility…and the possibility that Dash is just the first. Noel's cynicism aside, does this mean all the Incredibles are going to arrive? Will Syndrome? No wait he's dead…but Dash is clearly older now, maybe he came back? Yes? No. Damn…why am I the only one who remembers this? I mean…then again, I'm the only one who seems to remember that there were multiple worlds before the Anti-Monitor messed everything up, but everyone else says no, there was a huge battle but never any alternate worlds…argh, where's the Psycho-Pirate when you need him…" Rob said as he walked off down the hall. "Well, whatever's going on, I'll either solve it or I'll get mindwiped, whatever comes first…"

Rob was gone when Noel once again left the room, pondering the schematics of locating Dash's family. Well, at least Jump City was relatively quiet. Mick Dobbins aside. Maybe he'd better hit his informants soon, see what's going on. The last thing he needed was to be blindsided by some gigantic evil with a plot to destroy them.

Conveniently forgetting that despite all the times Noel had pledged that in the past, the evil had snuck up on them anyway.

* * *

(Author's Note: Before anyone brings up Boogeymen, I want to point out that Boogeymen happened out of my continuity. Which means it officially never happened. Understand? 

And incidentally, I don't drink Yoohoo.)

* * *

In contrast to the metallic yellow and black motif that covered everything in the Hiveathanas, Brother Blood's personal quarters were lavish, with everything from the carpeting to the books on the shelves four steps above the Spartan quarters of all the other people who lived aboard the massive hovership. It looked like a room Donald Troop would actually be content to live in. 

Jackal disliked it immediately. He knew the kind of men who had rooms like this. No wonder he had been able to deal with Blood so easily. When a man constantly had to shout out how good he seemingly was, it inevitably meant that even if he was good in any way, he doubted it. When you doubted yourself, you aided your own defeat. Men, beings with true power, like himself, did not need such a room. Jackal would be content with anything, because at heart he knew his place in the universe.

He'd reorganize the large room later. He didn't need a kitchen, a bedroom, or a testing room. He didn't need to eat or sleep, and quite frankly he didn't need to test his abilities. What he had now was more then enough, why would he ever need to improve them more?

For now, followed by several of his new 'minions', Jackal walked into the room, heading for Blood's main desk. It was covered with junk, plans, notes, nick-nacks, and other debris. Jackal tsk-tsked inside his head. Insecure and disorganized in private. There had been too much façade in the former leader of this den. Well, the new boss sure wasn't the same as the old boss.

"This was Blood's quarters. I trust they will be enough, Headmaster Jackal?" Jinx asked.

"Just Master will do." Jackal said, more for the necessity to keep the children in line then any actual desire to be called master. They could call him Master, Jackal, Jackass, or Popeye The Sailor Man, it wouldn't matter. But kids had a habit of taking a mile if you gave them an inch: Jackal needed them all to think he held their lives, bodies, and happiness in his hands and would bring down great wrath upon them if they failed or displeased him. And he might…in his own ways. He wasn't all that interested in hurting them. But he still needed them obedient. With how his latest plan had gone to hell out of the blue, having a bunch of new hands might help him get back on track all the faster. Maybe later, they'd find out he marched to the beat of his own drummer. For now, he'd walk in the overlord shoes.

"And I suppose I don't have much choice now, do I?" Jackal said as he went around the large desk and sat down in the chair. Comfortable, he supposed, but such small comforts didn't mean much to you when you could change the structure of not just what you were sitting on, but your own way of sitting.

"Well uh, if you want more I suppose we can…" Jinx stammered.

"I will be fine."

"That's good, because we have to talk turkey." Scorcher said as she walked forward. Jackal's eyes turned to her. After dealing with Blood, it hadn't taken long for word to get around the Hive that they were now under a new guiding hand. Jackal had sent the witnesses of the 'coup' off to deliver instructions and orders to all the people who lived on the ship. That had taken some time, but eventually several of them had returned to him to show him his room. Jackal had used that time to explore the Hiveathanas in his own unique way, so he already knew where the room was…but he went through the motions. Of the Hive members that had returned to him, two had been Jinx and Gizmo. The rest had been the five woman group called the Elementals, whose leader, Scorcher, was clearly chomping at the bit to ask/tell him something, and had finally decided she'd waited long enough.

Jackal figured that if he could appease her, the other Elementals would be immediately appeased as well. The fire girl was a natural leader, and her group clearly followed her with devotion. Jackal was certain that if he attacked her, despite what they had all witnessed, they wouldn't hesitate to jump to her defense. Indeed, from what Jackal had deduced from his observations, she should have been one of the last people working for Blood. He clearly had had something she wanted.

"Ok then, talk." Jackal said.

"Your pre-de-cess-sor only had my team's services because of what he promised me. Now you gone and done blown him to bits. So you better be ready to replace what he offered, or we're all walkin' right now." Scorcher said. All the other Elementals nodded.

"Well my dear…" Jackal said, as his eyes glanced down on an open book on the table, which happened to show a large picture of a bird, a Florida scrub jay to be precise (_Aphelocoma coerulescens_, Jackal found himself immediately recalling, and found a wave of disquiet coming in the wake of the nugget of information. The human brain was estimated to be capable of holding 100 million bits of information, but this was information theorized to be learned over a lifetime, and who knew how many humans actually got close to that capacity. When you needed to reorder the very building blocks of existence though, you need a sentience capable of absorbing a lot more. And it wasn't that Jackal hadn't been up to the task of properly programming himself. Oh no. It was rather that he not only knew all that now, but an endless amount of other knowledge…except…the one thing he truly…and he would think of that later, once he figured out just what had happened).

"I think you will find…" Jackal continued, as he placed his fingers on the book. "There is very little…I can't…"

Jinx's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. The picture was being SUCKED off the paper, the bird disappearing from the book, as a small mass of SOMETHING was pulled off the page, up into Jackal's hand as he turned it upright, the matter growing and shifting and forming as Jackal put his other hand over it, as Gizmo and all the other Elementals, even Scorcher, who was trying to keep a determined front up but couldn't help but betray some astonishment, stared in awe as Jackal blinked once…

And removed his covering hand.

A Florida scrub jay stood on the hand, twittering a deep few notes as it looked around for food.

"Do." Jackal finished.

Silence.

Jackal let them marvel, even as he rested a bit. Though it was true he could alter anything he touched, it took more effort to do so if the matter was 'apart' from him. He could changed his own body into anything now, effortlessly, adding and expending mass as he saw fit without a twinge of effort, but to take something apart from him and change it into something else, especially if it was something like changing a picture to an actual living bird (and he'd actually had to siphon a small bit of his own mass to provide the illusion of bringing the picture to life, as the actual photo didn't have the material needed to make a bird, but that was easily and already replaced), required some forethought and effort.

Still, it wasn't hard, and the results were worth it. Everyone in the room, even the usually blank faced Rocko, was looking at him like he was God Almighty.

Jackal wished.

Except…Scorcher. Who looked impressed but still wore a hardened expression.

"Well, that's all fancy and fine…but that's not what I need."

With a brief burst of motion, Scorcher grabbed the Florida scrub jay, which was only able to make one small peep of protest before Scorcher grabbed it with her other hand and twisted.

Jackal arched an eyebrow, as the other Elementals, as well as Jinx and Gizmo, turned their shocked eyes to Scorcher, as she coldly dropped the body of the bird on the desk again.

"Bring it back." Scorcher said.

"Danielleyoukilledit…" Zippy sputtered.

"Yeah, I noticed. BRING IT BACK." Scorcher said, in a tone of pure challenge.

Jackal looked at Scorcher for another second, and then reached down and picked up the limp form of the bird. As mentioned, material apart from him was a bit difficult to alter, but he had created this bird. Its very existence bore his mark. And that…made the task easier.

A few seconds later, along with a fixed bone, muscle, and vein structure, and a reformed, refreshed brain, the scrub jay was once again chirping on his hand.

"I trust that no more avicide will be needed." Jackal said, as Scorcher stared at the revived bird.

And then she took a step back and knelt.

"The Elementals, at your service." She said.

"Very well. Rise. No need for that." Jackal said as Scorcher got up. "I have a rough idea of what you want."

"The love of my life died before his time. I want him back." Scorcher said.

"When?"

"As soon as possible."

"But once I bring him back, why would you want to hang around?" Jackal asked.

"I didn't…"

A loud beeping suddenly sounded, and Scorcher and Jackal stopped their discussion to look at the source, Gizmo, who unclipped his hexagon-shaped communicator and looked at some data that was presumably on the screen.

"Word from Mammoth. Everyone's assembled as you requested he, uh, master." Gizmo said.

"Very well then. Go prepare an elevator, I'll be along shortly." Jackal said. The seven Hive members did so.

"So…she wants her boyfriend brought back, does she?" Jackal asked the scrub jay, as he conjured a peanut from the literal nowhere and fed it to the bird, which was friendly by nature and rarely afraid of humans, its small brain unable to comprehend that it had been willed out of the ether and then brought back from the other side all within a minute. "I wonder if she's aware of the old phrase…be careful what you wish for…"

Not knowing what else to do, Jackal used some of the junk on the table to form a cage and food and left the bird in there as he headed out.

The several Hive members immediately snapped to attention when they saw him. Jackal chuckled to himself. Blood had been more then insecure and vain: he had been an idiot. The correct way to lead and in some cases control underlings wasn't to scream and insult and threaten. That just bred resentment, which led to underperformance, rebellion, and betrayal. The proper way was to combine tough/fair treatment with subtle, unthreatening displays of power. He had been the leader of the Hive for less then three hours and already these seven would follow him, either through the desires of another or respectful fear. Whether he'd feel the need to develop their 'relationship' any more was yet to be determined.

"Elevator's ready." Scorcher said.

"Thank you." Jackal replied, as he walked in, the Elementals and Hive members following. "What floor is this meeting on?"

"Main level." Gizmo said, as he pressed a button to get the elevator started. "Could take a few minutes though, with your quarters so high up master."

"That's good actually. I require some information." Jackal said. "As you are now my subordinates, it would be best if I knew you. So tell me about the history of this place and about you."

"Sorry, I haven't been her' long. But I can give you basic introductions of my team and I." Scorcher said.

"Give me your names as well." Jackal said.

"Why?"

"I think you know."

"I guess I do. I'm Danielle Foster, Scorcher. I'm a pyrokinetic." Scorcher said as she conjured flames on her hands and arms.

"I noticed. How good are you?"

"Darn good! After that Amity Park incident, I'd say I'm one of the best in the world!"

"Amity Park…?"

"You didn't hear about that? How could you not…?"

"I've been out of town. Tell me later if it's not important." Jackal said.

"Uh well…that's it then I guess."

"Um…I'm Rose…Trent…Floral." Floral said softly. "I can control plants…well, except for trees."

"Why not trees?"

"Because the bastards wouldn't help when…um…we had a disagreement." Floral said, flaring up and then quieting back down. Jackal was about to say something else when Zippy was suddenly in front of him.

"HiI'mZippyandIthinkyou'reamuchbetterleaderthenBrotherBloodmypowerisIcanmoverealfastthroughthepoweroflightningatmyhigherspeedsIcaneven…"

"Whoa. Hold it. Can you please go slower?"

"Slowerwhohasthetimetogoslowlifeisfastgottagofastoryou'llbeleftbehindandIhatebeingleft…"

"Sal, cut it." Scorcher said. "Her name's Sally Markson."

"IpreferSalMarks!"

"She can run fast via lightning, as you might have caught. As she goes faster she gets charged with electricity, and at her top speed she can turn into a bolt of lightning."

"YesI'mnaturallyfastnotlikethosecheatingSpeedForceusersyeahtheymaybeallfancywiththeirvibrationtricksandrunningonthewallsbuttheirspeedallcomesfromoutsidesourcesI'mnaturallyfastitsallmeallmeanditwasneveranythingelse…"

"Ok, ok, I got it." Jackal said. "Please, stop talking."

"What'swrongwithmytalkingitsnotlikeIspeakgibberishImaybefastbutIhaveclearenoughenunciationpeopleneedto…"

"Sal! Cut it!"

"Okok."

"I'm Antoinette Albertine. The only well named member of this team. Platinum Blonde." Platinum Blonde said as she tossed back her metal hair. "I'm made of a special organic metal that some doctor once gave a name to but it was way too long for me to remember. It makes me as tough and strong as I am beautiful, and believe me, there's not many things better looking then I."

"Right. Never mind kissing you would probably feel like getting your tongue stuck on a lamppost." Jackal said. Platinum Blonde's eyes widened, as Gizmo chuckled to himself.

"_Comment defi vous! Vous pensez que vous savez la beaute? J'ai les legions gauches de votre race priant pour moi_…" Platinum Blonde began.

"Je parle francais aussi. Et je ne suggere pas que vous me defiiez d'une telle maniere. Je vous casserais, petite fille." Jackal retorted. Despite her metal face, Platinum Blonde clearly blushed a bit.

"Geez, stop it already. I hate having to go to Babelfish just to understand good insults." Gizmo commented to Jinx.

"Probably wouldn't understand them anyway. Direct translation from English to French and then back to English rarely delivers the same result." Jinx replied.

"Argh! Why can't everyone just speak good old English?"

"Because that would be boring. And you should hardly speak about good English. Mr. Snot! Crud! Snot! Crud!"

"Hey I don't do that as often now…"

"Ahem." Jackal said, as Gizmo and Jinx's eyes snapped back to him. "You can talk in a bit. Let them finish."

"I'm Rocko. Lorant Smith. I am made of rocks and control rocks. That is it." Rocko said.

"…Lorant?" Jackal asked.

"Yes."

"That's a boy's name."

"I was male once. Now I am not. It is long and complicated and…I don't much care for it." Rocko said.

"All right then. Whatever floats your boat. Ok chatterboxes, your turn."

"Um…" Jinx said. "Well I can tell you about the HIVE. We were originally formed by a mysterious man called the HIVE Master, we being the first HIVE group, as I wasn't there at the time. HIVE stands for Hierarchy of International Vengeance and Extermination, which was the original plan of the Hive Master, who gathered seven criminal scientists to work with him. They wanted to gain control of the world through terrorism and political manipulation, but they overestimated themselves and Superman decimated the original organization. At this point the original Hive master was murdered by his wife, who took over the Hive as the HIVE Mistress, but she was clearly insane. This was noted by one of the senior members of the group, who took matters into her own hands and broke off from the Hive Mistress and her scientists. It proved to be a wise move as the Hive Mistress truly was insane and murdered the original seven scientists shortly after, followed by taking her own life. The senior member took the name of the HIVE and refocused our goals. Along the way she began training more people to follow in the Hive's footsteps, and while doing this eventually discovered and founded what the HIVE is known for today: training young metahumans in their powers and abilities and gifts in what some would deem 'criminal activity'. While we also train many generic soldiers, who stay with us or go out to become mercenaries, bounty hunters, or other soldiers of fortune, the main thrust of the HIVE now is the training of these metahumans. I, and Gizmo, am one of the graduating classes. Eventually, the senior member who split off from the original HIVE, we called her the Headmistress, was usurped by Brother Blood, who you have yourself usurped. The HIVE has recently taken several blows as its main school and then its underwater base were destroyed, but we have rebounded via building this air fortress. Although I must note there is a problem with that master."

"What?"

"This fortress cost an incalculable fortune to build. As the new master of the Hive, I'm afraid you assume the debt." Jinx said, looking worried.

Jackal snorted.

"Debt? Have them point me at the nearest mountain. I'll turn it to gold or whatever precious metal they want. Debt solved." Jackal said. "Is that all?"

"Well, um, as you requested to meet with the most important members of the HIVE, we are taking you to meet with the current class and any other graduates who happen to be here. I must note that several of our students are away on tests or missions, so we're not at full strength, but while the people we have aren't as experienced, they have been taught well. I suppose you can meet the generic drones and all the other workforce of the base later."

"Agreed. So, who are you?"

"Um, I am Llarenes Morath, Jinx. Gizmo and I are partners with Mammoth, who isn't here, he's one of the ones gathering the students. We call ourselves the Troika, which is a general Russian word for trio. We were the graduating class a while back, after which came the Five…who we don't talk about if we can…and then the most recent graduates: Floral and Platinum Blonde, along with Juryrig, who is also helping gather the students."

"The rest of you aren't graduates?" Jackal asked the Elementals.

"I'ma teacher. Zippy's too impatient to take tests and Rocko couldn't be bothered. Graduates or not, we're the Elementals. No matter what." Scorcher said.

"I see. And this Five?"

"We don't like to discuss them…while it is true we have been beaten more then a few times by heroes of various stripes, the Five are a particularly…black mark on the academy. To bring them up again is to be forced to relive the shame…" Jinx said.

"All right, quit whining. Tell me later. What can you do?"

"Um…I command a part natural part magical ability to cause chaos and destruction in objects and people, though I do much better with objects. I jinx them, if you will. I can do it with my mind or with special blasts from my hands that I developed after training my talent for years, hex blasts, I call them. Originally my power was random: I would randomly cause strange things to happen…"

"All right, I got that. Moving on. You, shortie?"

"Hey I'm…yes master." Gizmo said as he remembered what Jackal had done to Blood. "My name is Gizmo. I can…"

"Real name?"

"I hate my real name. It's crud."

"Just tell me anyway."

Gizmo sighed.

"My name's Mikron O'Jeanus. But it's really Gizmo. I'm a mechanical genius. I fight with my own special battle tools and outfits and am highly skilled at modifying virtually anything mechanical into a weapon of some kind. I helped build this base, and I can turn a vacuum cleaner into a miniature tank in five minutes flat." Gizmo said proudly.

"And he also has the mentality of a three year old." Platinum Blonde added.

"Hey! Keep it to yourself you…"

"Enough." Jackal said, waving a hand. "Are we almost there?"

"Another few seconds." Gizmo said, checking the elevator panel.

"So, what ken YOU do Jackal?" Scorcher said. "If you can bring pictures to life, you must have something pretty potent in your hands."

Jackal closed his eyes and resisted the urge to smirk bitterly.

"I am the Jackal. And I can do anything." The Jackal said.

The elevator came to a stop and the doors opened.

"Anything at all." Jackal said, and turned around. "Let's go."

* * *

"It's all right Selinda. The new master seems like a fair enough sort. He could have easily killed us all if he didn't feel like giving us a chance. You'll do fine." Mammoth said as he knelt by a young teenage girl who looked to be sixteen or seventeen. While Mammoth's hair was brownish red, the teenage girl's hair was a deeper, more vibrant red, cut short with a mild feathered look. She had a wholesome beauty about her, with deep blue eyes and full lips. She wore a dark blue/purple costume that covered her neck, shoulders, both arms and hands, and breasts and upper torso before it ended at her waist, showing off her navel before it trailed into skintight pants of the same color and black boots. Her rather pleasant expression was marred by the look of worry in her eyes, a worry that even the large hands of her brother couldn't seem to dispel as he knelt behind her, his far larger frame looming over her like the guardian he believed himself to be. 

"But Baran, from what you said, he already has the ability to manipulate matter. Why would he need me?" Selinda Flinders asked.

"He'll find a use for you. Trust me." Baran replied, never realizing that his sister's worry wasn't so much that the new master of the Hive wouldn't have a need for her, but that if he didn't, Mammoth would interpret it the wrong way and go into a rage. Mammoth had always been protective of his little sister, to the point where he'd put her up in a small apartment in a peaceful beachfront town rather then have her follow him into the Hive. Despite this, Selinda had eventually followed him anyway, wanting to use her own powers to help. And while Mammoth had relented eventually and let her join the Hive, he was still protective of her, greatly so. If this Jackal said he didn't need her, Mammoth might very well get in his face about it…and that was the last thing Selinda wanted. But if she told him that, he'd feel like she was undercutting herself for his sake and he wouldn't allow that either…

A snorting laugh came from down the line.

"A use for you? Considering what he can do, you think he needs another person like that around? Forget it." A red haired male teen said. "Maybe while he's getting rid of you, he'll realize that this place only need one probability manipulator and will cut the one with a record of failure as long as her arm!"

Mammoth turned furious eyes on the teenager, though he did not move at the time.

"I swear Cord, I am going to go over there and…" Mammoth growled.

"And what? Punch me?" Cord replied, as he crossed his arms cockily. His costume was militaristic, with red and black camouflage pants and sleeveless shirt under a combat vest, with his hands wrapped and a bandanna tied around his forehead that read SABOTAGE. Which just happened to be his code name. And his specialty. "Go ahead muscleman. Your shoulder will pop out of joint just when the momentum of the blow will rip up the muscles in the most damaging way. Then your leg will be seized by a paralyzing cramp. And then you'll bang your head on the way down, have a seizure, and possibly wake up brain dead. So please. Try. I'm begging you." Sabotage said, and smirked nastily. Though he was still gentle, Selinda could feel her brother's hands dig slightly into her shoulders, and if that was all she was feeling from her immensely strong brother she couldn't fathom how much rage he was actually holding back. And while all of her fellow classmates didn't exactly look happy with his threat, none of them did anything. Partly because they were supposed to be a team, and partly because it seemed like none of them had the stones to step up.

Fortunately she had a white knight come to her rescue, even if he was black in this case, as Juryrig stepped from around the corner he had been watching and strode up to the lined up teenagers.

"Knock it off Sabotage, RIGHT THE FUCK NOW. We don't need your shit."

"My shit's better then your excuse for leadership. Shall we make a nice frame for your first asskicking at the hands of the Titans?" Sabotage mocked again. Juryrig wouldn't be bated though, as he held out an arm.

"I know your powers Cord. You can royally screw humans up but you can't do the same for inanimate objects. So why don't I make a little sparring partner for you and we can see how well your oh so vaunted because we never stop hearing about them hand to hand skills do against a form of metal and plastic."

Sabotage snorted a mean laugh again.

"I won't, just because I don't have fucking time to lead all these pussies around by the hand." Sabotage said, and cracked his knuckles. But he backed down, even though he did his best to look like he hadn't.

"Bastard." Selinda whispered to herself. "Why did he have to join the Hive? Hell, why is he still here?"

"His damn luck powers are all that kept Blood from killing him, I assume. Maybe we'll…" Mammoth began, and then Scorcher walked into the room.

"Attention." She said, and all the Hive members got into a tight line rather then the loose one they had been in a second ago, as the rest of the Elementals walked in. Juryrig walked down to the end of the line next to Selinda and Mammoth, who had stood up but not left his protective position behind his sister. The Elementals stayed in their own cluster, as usual.

"As y'all know, Blood's history. The Hive has a new master. I'm not one for fancy introductions, so here he is. The Jackal."

And in he walked.

Mammoth couldn't help but feel a minute shudder as he once again looked at the Jackal's tattooed face. He had special powers, and he'd seen a lot of stuff, but when you saw someone get their head lopped off and continue on like it was nothing more then a minor inconvenience, you knew you were looking at something special. And special didn't always mean good.

Well, Gizmo and Jinx were with him at least, and they didn't seem terrified, though they didn't seem ready to jump up and down with joy either. They walked in with him, as the Jackal stopped before the group of Hive students, looking them over.

Along with the Elementals, the Troika, Selinda, Juryrig, and Sabotage, there were five more Hive students in the room, all male and all with varying looks. Jackal would find out their exact differences in a moment, as he began walking back and forth before the group.

"I have just one way of leading. As my underlings, my minions if you will, you will give me everything you have as if you've known me all your life. No one phones it in or quits under my hand. I find out you're doing that, I'll kill you myself. Understood?"

There was a chorus of Yes's and Yes Masters. Jackal nodded.

"That is all. Now, since I am your new leader, I will find out what I am leading. I've already learned the ins and outs of the Elementals and these two, so I'll start down here." Jackal said as he walked to the end of the line where Juryrig was. "Name, handle, powers, weaknesses, anything you feel the need to tell me."

"I am Julian Rencercer. Juryrig. I was the lead graduate of the most recent class, though it was somewhat small…anyway, I can animate inanimate objects and assemble them to form weapons, tools, creatures, anything I can think of. The more junk and debris there is, the bigger I can make the creatures. I can only control inorganic material though: I can't manipulate anything alive. Also, I'm linked to my creations, so whatever they experience I feel, to a smaller degree." Juryrig said.

"Anything else?"

"No headmaster."

"Master."

"Sorry master."

"Forgiveness granted." Jackal said as he took a step to the left and looked up at the massive older teen. "I take it you're Mammoth."

"Yes Master."

"Your Troika teammates mentioned you but didn't give details."

"My name is Baran Flinders. I have superhuman strength and decent invulnerability type endurance. I also like to think…I'm faster then I look." Mammoth said. Selinda still looked scared, so he started talking for her. "This is my sister Selinda. She…"

"Let her talk for herself." Jackal said. Selinda's eyes widened, as did Mammoth, though his eyes immediately narrowed afterward. He didn't care HOW powerful Jackal was: he was going to accept her or at least keep her around or there would be hell to pay.

"Um, um…" Selinda stammered. "I'm…Shimmer."

"Shimmer?"

"Yes, Shimmer."

"Stupid bitch named herself after one of the enemies' powers. Brilliant." Sabotage muttered.

"I heard that. And I don't appreciate interruptions. Who spoke?" Jackal said as he looked away from Shimmer.

"That was me, master." Sabotage said, though there was a note of sarcasm in the master that Jackal didn't much care for. Jackal walked over.

"Why did you feel the need to speak?"

"Because my daddy taught me that people should either fucking listen to you or just fuck off." Sabotage replied, as most of the Hive goggled at the teen. Didn't he have any idea who he was talking to?

Apparently not, and Jackal could respect his in your face courage. But he couldn't let it go too far.

"What's your name boy?"

"Cord Rayfory sir! Sabotage!" Sabotage said, as he stomped his foot in a perfect Marine style march.

"I read it off your bandana. Like the Marines, child?"

"Yes sir! Semper fi do or die kill kill kill!" Sabotage chanted. Jackal narrowed his eyes slightly at the little display, which was most likely for him rather then any real devotion Sabotage may have had for Marine training or brotherhood.

"…Yes. Ok then, what can you do?"

Sabotage smirked.

"Why don't you take a swing at me and find out?"

Some of the students gasped at Sabotage's audacity. Jackal's eyes narrowed more.

"You wish for me to direct a blow your way in order to demonstrate your talent."

"Hell yeah." Sabotage said, as he snapped into a martial arts stance.

Jackal stared at him for a few more seconds, then chuckled.

"Ok." Jackal said. "Goodbye."

And Jackal swung…

And his knee abruptly buckled. The blow was yanked away from Sabotage's face as the Jackal found himself falling on his back from the abrupt change of balance.

Several Hive students gasped again.

"I can manipulate probability, make my own luck when it comes to fighting and make it the worst kind for my opponents. Big, small, tough, skilled, it don't matter, because when I lay eyes on them, they can't land a blow. It's a lot better then any other people in this room who think they know how to use bad luck." Sabotage bragged.

"Fuck you Cord." Jinx snapped.

"You wish pinky." Sabotage replied, and licked his lips. Jinx recoiled in disgust. Sabotage smirked and was about to say something else…

When Jackal suddenly got to his feet. And not in the traditional 'roll to ones' knees and push up' way. It was as if his body was a tape running in reverse, as he lifted himself back up like gravity didn't apply to him, the only thing remaining on the ground being his heels as he lifted himself up and face to face with Sabotage again.

That gave the teen a brief pause.

"Nice talent." Jackal said. "And you must have trained it well if it can affect someone like me."

"Fuckin' A."

"But there's one lesson you apparently still haven't learned child. Not every blow has to be physical."

Sabotage blinked.

Jackal's eyes sparked with a strange energy, and then with a loud bang Sabotage was struck with SOMETHING and thrown backwards, flying across the room and slamming against the wall at the far end, falling to his knees as he clutched at his face, howling as blood leaked through his fingers.

"Get him medical attention." Jackal said. Scorcher stared for another second, and then signaled for two Hive drones who happened to be nearby to get Sabotage and escort him from the room.

"Another lesson boy. It's not the first blow in a fight that matters. It's the last." Jackal said, as Sabotage was escorted out.

"Now…" He continued, as he walked back to Shimmer. "You were saying?"

"Uh…" Shimmer stammered: though she felt better after Cord had been put in his place, she was still very nervous. "I'm a…matter transmuter."

"Matter transmuter?" Jackal repeated: he seemed to do that a lot.

"Yes I can transform elements and compounds into…other elements…and compounds." Shimmer stammered. "However my transformations only last a few minutes…and I can only change things that are closer then three feet away from me."

Jackal looked at her.

Shimmer resisted the urge to cower away, as a dark look started to appear in Mammoth's eyes again.

Then Jackal reached up and lightly patted Shimmer's cheek.

"I like you." He said, and moved on.

Shimmer's rush of relieved breath could have put Herald to shame, as Jackal moved on to the first unknown Hive member.

He certainly didn't look like much, especially considering he looked as nervous as Shimmer. Unlike all the other Hive members, who had unique costumes, all he was wearing was jeans and a T-Shirt under a partly opened purple Hive robe. His greasy brown hair, nervous green eyes, and features that were a step away from weak didn't help him either.

"And you are?" Jackal asked.

"Wilby Tierney, sir." Wilby replied.

"Wilby huh…" Jackal said, as he looked up and down the line. "Hmmmmm, one of these things is not like the other…I assume you have a reason for standing here among these other more, how shall I say, colorful individuals?"

"Yes sir."

"Well what is it?"

"Well uh I just…I mean if…you didn't…I'll show you sir." Wilby stammered, as he took off his robe and put his hands together.

"This better be good." Jackal commented.

It was, as with a suddenly roar Wilby's small form shifted and morphed, rising up and out, and even as he did so his clothes transformed as well. Within several seconds Wilby was three times taller then before and twice as wide, a mountain of muscles covered in plated armor, huge boots on his feet, his upper face covered with a plate sunglass shield and a large pointed horn sweeping back from his forehead and over his crown. A large RB with a stylized oval adorned his chest, as he took his hands apart again.

"Hmmmmmmmmmm…small geeky-esque kid suddenly turns into a hulking giant, where have I seen that before…" Jackal muttered.

"The author would like to protest she conceived of this character long before she heard of any movie called _Sky High_." Jinx said.

CRASH!

"Go fix the forth wall student."

"Yes master…"

"I am Rhinoceros Beetle." The now giant Wilby said: he was even larger then Mammoth, something Mammoth didn't seem to care for. "I'm named that way because in this form I command the strength of the rhinoceros beetle, the strongest insect on the planet: they can lift 850 times their own weight. In this form, so can I."

"That would be his huge form, not his tiny one." Scorcher added.

"Really." Jackal said. "Well then, assuming that you weigh at least 300 pounds that means you can lift…"

"At least 125 tons. Five time Mammoth's weight limit." Gizmo said.

"Hey!" Mammoth grunted.

"Hey Mammoth, just giving the numbers."

"Which brings up another point." Jackal said. "With such size, and such power…why did you look like a scared deer?"

"Um…er…" Rhinoceros Beetle stammered.

"Come to think of it, why two musclemen in the same group? Especially if one so outclasses the other…that means there must be…a flaw…" Jackal said.

And then he whirled and rammed his fist into Wilby's gut.

Wilby went down like a felled tree, collapsing at Jackal's feet as he curled into a fetal position on his knees, gasping for air and in pain.

"Ah…now I see. All you have is the strength. While most strongmen types tend to have some kind of endurance to go along with their vigor, you seem to maintain the same level that you had in a small form. Bad luck there. Then again, that's why there's teams." Jackal said. Rhinoceros Beetle's form shrank in on itself as the armor seemed to be absorbed into Wilby's skin, leaving him the way he originally was.

"Why didn't you tell me about this up front?" Jackal asked.

"I…hate…to show…" Wilby gasped, as he pulled an inhaler from a pocket and put it to his mouth, gasping in the medicine as Jackal watched. He had asthma as well, or at least a kind that manifested under stress. "I hate it…when people assume that just because…I'm a giant that I can have a beanstalk fall on me…without effect. And I hate…the looks…in their eyes when they realize how soft I really am, the look of…arrogant judgment. I've tried to…train and I wear the best armor that can be allowed with my specific power…but…I can't help it…and I don't like…being reminded of it."

"Get up." Jackal said. Wilby did so, as he wiped at his watery eyes.

"Never deny a weakness. Instead, embrace it, and make it work for you. At the very least, it prevents others from exploiting it so readily."

"Yes master."

"I'll see if I can't think of something to cover that."

"Thank you master."

"You want to thank me, get to work on training that out of you." Jackal said as he walked on to the next Hive member. This one looked more like a Hive member: he was a good-looking male with grayish blue eyes and long brown hair with blonde streaks, the hair done up in semi dreadlocks, albeit not like Juryrig's, for while the black teen's hair was a tangled mass, this boy only had five or six, carefully assembled at the back of his head so they hung down on his shoulders. He wore a brown and silver costume with lots of leather straps, topped off with a long Matrix-esque coat. He kept one hand carefully at his side as he nodded his respect for the Jackal.

"And you're?"

"Simon Tepes sir. Flay. I'm a whip expert." Simon, er, said.

"Just a whip expert?"

"Well I have special things that charge and alter the whips, make them more powerful and such, but I'd like to note that's mostly dressing. I'm a whip EXPERT." Flay said.

"Expert? Ok then." Jackal said, as he raised his thumb, dislodged his thumbnail, and as a new nail grew he let the old one fall into the palm of his hand, which he closed for a few seconds before opening it again, revealing a buzzing fly. "Prove it."

The Hive moved away from Flay, as he moved the hand he held on his side slightly, producing a whip from somewhere within his coat, letting it coil out around his legs as his eyes carefully followed the fly.

He watched it for three seconds.

Then a loud snap of sound filled the air as Flay struck.

The fly…remained flying.

Everyone stared.

"…May I point out the fly is still alive." Jackal said.

"Yes, it is alive." Flay said, and smirked. "But he will never be a father."

Jackal arched an eyebrow, and then snatched the fly out of the air, froze it in some kind of crystal, and put his eye against it for a few seconds.

"…I'll be damned." Jackal said, lowering the crystal. "You are a whip expert."

"I pride myself on being nothing but, master." Flay said, bowing slightly as he tucked his whip back into his costume (the straps weren't all straps, Jackal saw now: some of them were whips).

"You're human otherwise though right?"

"Yes master."

"Very well then." Jackal said, and moved on.

The next Hive member took the cake. While Flay had been decent looking, the latest one made Flay look like Quasimodo. With his long black hair, turquoise eyes, and slight Hispanic features, he fit every definition of the phrase 'pretty boy', or maybe bishonen. He wore a black costumes with silver bands that constantly crossed over each other on all parts of the outfit.

"Master Jackal." He said. His voice had a slight Spanish accent, the kind that drove certain woman wild. Jackal hoped his power wasn't pheromones or something in that vein: he didn't need a minion whose sole power was getting tail.

"Name?"

"Arturo Nicanor. Progeny." Progeny said. "My power is…rather difficult to describe…would it be possible if I gave a demonstration?"

"If you wish."

So Progeny did.

And Jackal found out he'd been wrong about his theorized power. WAY wrong.

"That's DISGUSTING." Jackal said when Progeny was done.

"Maybe, but I've trained it very well sir. It is very effective in combat, both on a physical and psychological level."

"I gathered. Let me guess your weakness." Jackal said, and did it on his first try.

"Well…you're unique. I'll just say that." Jackal said, and moved on to the next. While Progeny looked Spanish, the next Hive member looked Greek. He had dark brown eyes and black hair, which appeared on his head expertly sculpted into backwards pointing spikes (static electricity, Jackal figured: it was nearly impossible to keep such a perfect style with gel and hair care products) and on his face with a small goatee. He wore a skintight blue suit with silver streamers tied to his biceps and a long karate style silver belt around his waist. He looked twitchy and antsy, as if he didn't much care for standing still.

"You don't seem to like being stationary." Jackal expounded.

"That's putting it lightly. My name sounds weird, but here it is: Ezhno Aeneas. I prefer my code name. Hermes."

"Hermes. I have an idea…"

"I'm." Hermes said.

"A." He continued as he was suddenly at Jackal's side.

"Speed." He said from across the room.

"Force." He said on the other side.

"User." He finished, in front of Jackal again. Jackal arched an eyebrow, and then, on a hunch, glanced at Zippy, who had crossed her arms and was sulking.

"Well, you can move fast."

"Maximum speed 1000 miles a second. They never see me coming." Hermes said.

"Weaknesses?"

"None at all."

"Liar! Allyourspeedcomesfromanoutsidesource! Cutitoffandtheturtlecouldoutrunyou!" Zippy snapped.

"Ah, but that's never happened Zippy. And might I point out at least my speed doesn't make me sound like a Chipmunk record being played at 78 rpm." Hermes shot back.

"YouliarIknowtheSpeedForcecan…"

Hermes didn't seem to move, but Zippy's mouth suddenly dropped open in shock.

"Heysomeonejustgrabbedmyrear! Youpervertthat'sitIdon'tcarehowfastyouareI'll…" Zippy yelled as she ran over to Hermes and got in his face.

"Enough." Jackal said. "Work out your sexual tension later."

"Thereisnodamnsexualtensionthisguy'sabastardandahalf…"

"Zippy get back over here." Scorcher said. Zippy grumbled as she walked back over to the Elementals.

"I'm just the fastest one here. That's the way it is." Hermes said to Jackal.

"Don't get cocky, or you'll be seeing how fast you can lose. And don't cope feels either. I don't approve of it." Jackal said.

"Yes Master Jackal." Hermes said, as he settled down, just a bit, though it was clear he'd rather be in motion. Jackal moved on. What a group. An arrogant probability manipulator, a wimpy giant, a perverted speedster, whatever the hell Progeny was…he wondered if the last Hive member might actually be normal…

"Took you long enough! Why did I have to be at the end of the line! It's not worthy of me!" The last Hive member suddenly flared up. Jackal hadn't been really looking at him, but his outburst got his attention.

Jackal mildly chuckled to himself, wondering if the last Hive member was a suckup, because he was dressed as a bee. Specifically he was wearing an armored mechanical suit (if Tony Stark existed in this universe he might have had grounds for a suit) with black and yellow coloring and stripes, as well as very realistic looking insect wings, a robotic abdomen jutting from behind him, and a fancier version of the bee-esque helmet the Hive drones wore.

"Let me guess. Hive Man?" Jackal asked.

"No! Buzz Bomb!"

"Well at least your name isn't bad minion."

"Silence! No one calls Buzz Bomb minion!"

"Shut up minion."

"Yes sir." Buzz Bomb said, going from outraged to obedient within a second.

"What can you do minion?"

"My suit increases my speed and agility, and allows me to fly at high speeds…"

"Fly? How? That suit must weigh a ton. How can you fly with that setup?" Jackal said, indicating the gossamer wings.

"According to scientific studies, bumblebees shouldn't be able to fly either. They manage. So do I." Buzz Bomb said. "I have lasers in my gauntlets, and I am an explosives expert. If it goes boom, I can build it."

"Oh really. How quickly?"

"Simpler the better, but try me."

Jackal's request made Gizmo's eyes widened as wide as saucers.

"You crudbrain! That's a mini nuke! You can't build that with your bare hands!"

"Gizmo, no one questioned you when you said you could turn a vacuum cleaner into a tank." Jackal said, looking from Buzz Bomb to Gizmo as Buzz Bomb furiously got to work, producing tools and material from somewhere in his costume.

"But that's just a small anti personal weapon! You shouldn't build something like that in the middle of the Hive Air Base! One wrong connection and we're so much vapor!"

"Actually you'd all be so much vapor. Me…" Jackal said.

"DONE!" Buzz Bomb said, as he rose off the ground, flew a few feet, and then slammed the completed device against Mammoth's chest.

"Hey!" Mammoth yelled, and swiped at the flying man, who zipped away.

"One Whatchamacallit Bomb, to your specifications." He said with a flourish.

"You made a nuclear device on the spot?"

"I carry small amounts of plutonium in my abdomen." Buzz Bomb said as he set down in front of the Jackal and pulled a piece of paper from somewhere. "Now that you've seen my mad skillz, I have a list of demands! 1) I demand an unlimited supply of Red Bull so I can keep awake and be aware of my enemies, 2) I demand to be addressed as Buzz Bomb, Love Machine, 3)…" Buzz Bomb said, and then stopped as he suddenly found Jackal's pointer and middle fingers lightly pressed against his forehead.

"Unless you want to be turned into a swarm of apoidea attached to miniature grenades, I suggest you stop talking. Now."

"I'll be good." Buzz Bomb said, putting away the list.

"He did the same thing with Brother Blood. Just a kid testing the limits of his superiors." Jinx said.

"You got a name kid?" Jackal asked.

"Buzz Bomb!"

"Your real name."

"Buzz Bomb!"

"Is there an echo in here? REAL. NAME."

"I am Buzz Bomb! That is all!"

"…You're not afraid of me at all are you?" Jackal asked.

"Nope."

"Then why are you following my orders?"

"I grew up in a very strict household." Buzz Bomb said, and shrugged. "Can I make more demands?"

"No."

"Ok then how about you just give me that pen?" Buzz Bomb said, pointing to a pen in the Jackal's pocket.

"You mean this simple little pen that this base probably has millions of lying around?"

"Yes."

"No."

"Accepted." Buzz Bomb said, and got back into line.

"Is anyone going to do anything about this damn nuke on my chest?" Mammoth complained.

Jackal, deciding this was a good chance to make one of his subtle gestures of power, proceeded to turn the mini nuke into a black forest cake.

The wanted effect was had.

"Ok then. As it was said, I am the Jackal, your new leader, you will obey all my commands. Any problems?"

There were none.

"All right. The usual schedule, whatever it is, is scrapped. I want you all to be on standby for when I call on you. Don't leave the base, and don't do anything that would exhaust yourself. I don't much care for weakness." Jackal said. "Elementals, Jinx, Gizmo, with me. The rest of you are dismissed." Jackal said, and headed out of the room, his requested Hive members following him. He walked until he came to a window looking out onto the clouds, where he stopped.

"What's your hankerin', Jackal?" Scorcher asked him.

"I decided that sending the entire Hive to do this would attract too much attention. Therefore, I have decided to entrust this task to just you Elementals." Jackal said, as he reached into his pocket.

"What might that be?"

Jackal turned as he pulled out the picture of his jacket.

"These people might have arrived in the same area as me. That city in the distance." Jackal said, as she showed the Incredibles to the Elementals.

"Jump City?" Scorcher said.

"Whatever. Go there. FIND THEM. And if…and when you do, report to me IMMEDIATELY."

"Just look for them? Don't jump 'em?"

"They deserve far more then that…" The Jackal growled, as his eyes sparked again.

"Whoa, don't go blowin' a gasket thar Jackal. All right then, we'll find these people you seem to have a dislikin' for. And you better remember what you promised me. Let's go Elementals." Scorcher said, and led the Elementals off.

"…Um…what do you wish of us Master Jackal?" Jinx asked, as the Jackal turned back to the window.

Jackal was silent.

"…Are you ok?"

"Fine. Fine tuned actually. Something occurred to me Jinx, when you were talking about bringing me to meet all the HIVE members on the elevator. Something very subtle but there. A slight hint of…concealment."

Jinx looked confused, as Jackal turned back to her.

"Was that ALL the Hive members, Jinx?"

Jinx blanched a bit.

"Are there any more people out there besides the guards and the engineers and the cooks and all that?"

Jinx felt her mouth go dry. She'd hoped she wouldn't have to reveal this, as if by not doing so she could make it…her…go away.

"Well Jinx?"

"…There is…one more…person…in the Hive…" Jinx stammered.

"…I see. And you didn't bring this person because…?" Jackal asked.

Jinx didn't answer. Jackal noticed that her expression and Gizmo's were mirrored. That was unusual. Whoever this mystery person was, he or she clearly bothered Jinx and Gizmo. A great deal.

"…She's not…the socializing type." Jinx said, and found her mouth dry, unable to say any more, remembering…

The screams…

Her eyes…

"You seem to have a problem with this woman." Jackal said.

Jinx and Gizmo were silent.

"You can speak freely. I won't bite."

"SHE'S FRIGGIN NUTS!" Gizmo suddenly exploded. "Her brain…it's a snottin' hell dimension in a skull…"

"She's…blank…so blank…oh god…so…so…" Jinx said, as she suddenly found her eyes teary.

"…Hmmmmm." Jackal said.

"I honestly think there's more to it then hmmmmm, master Jackal." Jinx said. "She had some kind of arrangement with Brother Blood. We don't know what it is, how he met her, but even then we don't know why, HOW he could keep her around. Now that Blood's gone, I ask, no, I BEG you to get rid of her. Preferably with fire. And lots of it."

Jackal appeared to be in deep thought.

"Tell me more."

And though it clearly scared them, Gizmo and Jinx did.

And Jackal understood just why. They were children, confused kids, wannabe soldiers of fortune. The person they spoke of…was anything but. Even if their fear spawned exaggeration was minimal…

"…Take me to her."

"…Master Jackal, this is the only time I will say this. No. I went down there once and I never, EVER will again." Gizmo said.

"Neither will I." Jinx said, and stood in nervous rank before Jackal.

"…Well then. If you won't accompany me, will you at least get me a map?"

The two Troika members were gone so fast you would swear Hermes carried them off.

The Jackal turned and looked back out onto the stormy clouds.

"…Some people fear things because they are beyond their understanding…and some fear things because they should be feared…I wonder which one you are…I wonder if you have the answer…" The Jackal said as he looked out on the stormy clouds. "I wonder where you are Incredibles. Has this strangeness slipped you from my grasp…or just…loosened my grip?"

Lightning flashed across the sky.

"You better pray for the former, Incredibles. Pray to every god there is."

* * *

"You think this means anything?" Cyborg asked from where Savior was standing at the window, looking up at the clouds. 

"That a nice clear sky suddenly turned to thunderstorms with no rain…AFTER such a previous event seemed to foreshadow strangeness like dumping a crazy kid on our beach? Yes. I think this means something." Savior said.

He watched for a few more seconds.

"All right, let's go." Savior said, as he spun on his heel and unsnapped his communicator. "Gauntlet, Terra, meet me in the garage and bring Batgirl. I think there's a fair chance we might get a new guest soon."

"That reminds me. Exactly how many spare rooms DO we have? This Tower was originally built for five you know. If, or rather when the rest of Dash's family shows up, are we gonna have to start sharing room? Because if we do, dibs on not rooming with Gar." Gauntlet's voice came through the communicator.

"Hey, what's wrong with rooming with me?" Beast Boy protested back.

"The last time you were in my room for five minutes, I was picking green hair out of my stuff until Christmas."

"That was the hottest day last summer! I don't always shed like that!"

"Gar, what do you think TODAY is?"

"…Point."

"We have other things to worry about here guys." Savior said as he ran down some stairs. "Make sure you're all ready."

"Check readiness, understood. Autograph book, check. Plastic bags for locks of hair, check. Syringes to extract genetic samples, check. I'm set to go!"

"I meant are you ready to go into COMBAT."

"Combat? Noel, the superhero fights superhero because of a misunderstanding is such an overdone cliché even I'M sick of it! Do you really want to wish it upon us?"

"No. But I'd like to point out that Dash most likely didn't want to fight us either when he came out. Why did he anyway, oh yeah, HE WAS INSANE!"

"…Crap. Ok, promethium laced autograph book it is."

"You wasted promethium on an autograph book?"

"Considering I was trying to get Cthulhu's signature at the time, I thought it would be a good idea."

"When did…never mind. I don't wanna know." Savior muttered.

"Great, dealing with an insane superman type, or a stretchy type, or a shield generating and light bending type. Won't this be fun." Cyborg commented.

"Well, there are weaknesses to exploit! Bob's back gives him trouble. Violet, well Cassandra has gas grenades or something in that belt of hers, I'd assume, and since Violet's still breathing I'm assuming she's letting air through that bubble. Helen…well any tactics that would work well on Plastic Man I guess."

"Dude, where are you getting your information?" Beast Boy's voice chimed over the communicator.

"Uhhhhhhhhhhhh…" Gauntlet said, remembering his promise. "Guesswork and conjecture?"

"Can you even spell conjecture?" Savior snarked as he entered the garage.

"Hey!"

"No more talk. We need to be going. Have to find out if anyone's out there. And if so, before they get anyone killed. Including themselves." Savior said, as he sprinted for the T-Car.

* * *

And somewhere… 

In a dark, dank building…

The air stank of ozone.

And then…reality took a holiday.

And a form came tumbling out.

_To Be Continued._


	10. Females Three

Chapter 9: Females Three

"It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done."

Oscar Wilde

The alleyway stank of displaced garbage and other, harder to classify smells, the scent of despair and hopelessness. Or that's how a creative person might have described the faint undertones. Savior would have described it as a place that had seen too many homeless people and their not exactly efficacious hygiene skills. But he wouldn't blame them for that…mostly. He had a task.

Dash's entry to his world near the Titans' tower had had more then one advantage. Along with the Titans being right on the scene, it had allowed the energy anomaly of his entrance to be scanned by the myriad of security systems that the island had on it (the systems that were due to be upgraded and enhanced, Noel mused: he'd put in that order nine days ago, where the hell was it? Well he'd figure that out later). Cyborg's numerous tech tasks had included running what the computer had scanned through various systems in an attempt to find a way to pinpoint it if it repeated itself. His brilliance in machines shone through as he had designed such a scanner program within a few hours, but it wasn't perfect. Once Cyborg had found the traces of the energy again, within Jump City, he had managed to work the emergence point down to a few square blocks. Not a HUGE area to search…but since it was a section of run down warehouses near the Jump City docks, it left plenty of hiding places.

The fact that hiding places might actually be used bothered Savior. If anyone who went through what Dash went through came out mad, there should have been an easy to find trail, not dead air. But the six of them had found nothing.

Yet.

Savior's communicator buzzed, and Savior snapped it off his belt and opened it up.

"Savior."

"Cyborg here. There's an issue at the Tower Savior. Can I briefly break from the group and head back there to deal with it?"

"What is it?"

"Let's just say it's an issue that will benefit from my own…specific world, you might say."

"A food and video game addict?"

"Ha ha. I'll leave you the spare T-Car. It may not be my true baby, but Savior, try not to wreck it."

"Under…" Savior began.

And then a noise sounded at the end of the alleyway. Coming from within a rusted dumpster.

"Stood." Savior said, and signed off. He carefully put the communicator away as he looked at the dumpster, contemplating his options. If the mindset that had gripped Dash was not unique, Savior had no business doing anything violent. But he had to defend himself in case the lunatic attacked him, not to mention he had to get the person held down long enough to try and fix the damage.

In the end, Savior settled for forming the Shimmer into a large hammer with a softer density then he would normally use, with several other strands dangling from it so Savior could initiate 'faster entry' to his target's mind if he could. Focusing, Savior crept down the alleyway, as the dumpster continued to rattle, an occasional bit of junk flying out of its open lid. Other faint noises occasionally issued forth, but nothing Savior could pin down, as he drew close.

A disgusting something or other flew at Savior's face. He snapped his head to the side, barely avoiding it, as he coiled down a bit and then sprang up on the edge of the dumpster.

"Tuesday's newspaper?" Gauntlet asked, offering a repulsively soiled bundle of paper swollen with 'garbage water'. Savior's eyes widened a bit.

"Gauntlet! What are you doing?"

"Yeah, someone already did the crossword." Gauntlet said, tossing the paper aside.

"Why are you searching a dumpster?"

"Elementary my dear Watson. When searching for something, establish a perimeter first. So I'm checking all the stuff outside the buildings."

"Why not inside the buildings?"

"Why would a tear open inside the buildings? Wouldn't it more likely open outside, where there's more space?"

"That's not a bad assessment but why are you searching a dumpster?"

"What better place for a scared newcomer who may or may not be nuts to hide?"

"Maybe, but do you honestly think they'd burrow under the garbage, exposing themselves to god knows what, instead of just sitting on top of it?"

"Hey, in this world, expect the unexpected!"

"…Ok." Savior said, sounding out each syllable. "Well then, I'm going to check inside the building here. Try not to get too caught up digging for buried treasure."

"Ha! Fat chance." _Especially considering one of the guests may be a hot, potentially available superhuman girl._ Gauntlet added mentally, as Savior climbed up the wall of the building next to the dumpster and looked around the roof, hunting for a way in that didn't involve breaking a window.

* * *

It's funny the things you remember some times.

She'd never much cared for English in her school. Maybe it was due to bad teachers, but she always found the concept of taking a story apart and trying to find out what was special about it was much like what happened to the goose that laid the golden eggs: it ended up dead with no answers on how it made said gold and no more gold coming from it. Not to mention her school had a habit of assigning books far too complicated for their grade levels. Like Joseph Conrad's _Heart of Darkness_. She was all for a strong tale filled with metaphors but Conrad's English was so advanced and inaccessible it regularly stumped college students, much less 8th Graders. Her whole class had barely been able to decipher a tenth of the novel, even with Cliff Notes and the teacher's help, and she was glad when they had finally finished and moved on to _The Catcher In The Rye_.

But despite being so monumentally complicated, that didn't mean she hadn't learned anything from it. One thing she remembered was what inspired the novel. Conrad, eight years before he wrote the book, had been a sea captain on a Congo steamer. His tenure had lasted one trip up the river, where he had witnessed so many atrocities he had quit on the spot.

Good for HIM, she thought now.

Because as far as she was concerned, he didn't have the slightest idea what atrocity was.

Oh, she was certain he'd seen terrible things. Quite possibly things that seemed beyond human evil. But the fact remained, that for virtually all their terrible acts, the evil behind humanity was just that, human.

Maybe that could manifest true horror…

But that horror was at least human.

Not what she had seen.

Not what had barraged her senses, torn into her mind, reached seemingly deep into her very soul with claws of ice and dragged them across her being. The horrendously alien incomprehensible ESSENCE of the place she had tumbled through, beyond her ability to grasp but not beyond her ability to experience it at all, hammering endlessly at her for who knows how long: it could have been mere seconds but it felt like an eternity.

Her mind was left in a bad way: twisted off its moors but not entirely so, lost both to the returning comfort of normalcy and the oblivion comfort of madness, neither here nor there. Lost, without any way of finding a path to either, in neither heaven nor hell but an unspeakable, unbearable limbo.

It, in a flash of lucidity, reminded her of another part of _Heart of Darkness_. The 'villain' Kurtz, and his infamous utterance…

The horror…the horror…

* * *

Beast Boy was sniffing at a curb in the form of a pig when his communicator buzzed. He swiftly returned to human form as he removed it, glancing at Terra as she came out of a nearby building, shrugging her shoulders and shaking her head at him to indicate that SHE hadn't found anything, but who knew if there was actually nothing in the building.

"Find anything?" Savior asked.

"Sure. She just popped up now. Came out of a police box with a guy with big ears and another girl whose appearance I could describe as "lovely with a faint hint or two of trash". I think the guy forgot his medication as he seems rather animated about the whole thing."

"Ha ha Beast Boy. Keep looking. If you think this dimension hopping is similar to what the Tardis pulls, you're dead wrong. Things are never that easy."

"Yeah I figured. Out." Beast Boy said, as he put his communicator away…and was suddenly aware of motion nearby. He turned to find Terra was floating a trash can on a plank of rock near him, a grin on her face.

"Human! Exterminate! Exterminate!" She said in a dull robotic tone.

"Ah! Help! I need a flight of stairs!" Beast Boy mock yelled as he ran away, Terra chasing after him with her makeshift Dalek.

With Beast Boy's joke having caused him to start humming the _Doctor Who_ theme to himself, Savior continued hunting for a door…and found the next best thing, an already broken window.

Down in the alleyway, Gauntlet pulled himself out of the dumpster, wiped himself off, and then deciding on a hunch, headed down the alleyway. He found a door much quicker then Savior did.

* * *

Normalcy beyond her grasp…

Was this a floor beneath her hands? A roof under her head? Air in her lungs? Did anything she perceive have any basis in reality anymore? Was she real? Or an echo of a now gone existence? The brief spark in some omnipotent omniscient mind that was already fading from memory? Was she anything at all? Did all the value she hold in herself mean anything when reality was reduced to such a shambling, distorted landscape, no more real then her dreams and her fantasies and oh god she couldn't stand this she needed something anything because she couldn't exist this way any more and if the price was her sanity and self she'd pay it but she needed something anything ANYTHING THE HORROR…

"Violet Parr?"

And through the shifting murk of limbo, the voice pierced liking a shining spear, as something finally asserted itself in the world as real. She needed anything, as she had said, and those words did just fine, serving as an anchor for her mind to seize onto, her eyes swiftly following, her view solidifying from random blurring speckled with flashes of unfathomable data to the more casual, well known factor of a room, a dark room filled with musty boxes, little light…and a person.

"Violet Parr?" Savior asked again.

Violet stared at the figure in white, and even as she did, the reversal sprang into high gear. Her trip had been different then Dash's. He had been completely exposed to the alien nature of the dimensional rip and hence had lost his senses rather quickly, but Violet had had her shield up when she had gone through. And it had protected her…though that made things even worse in many ways, as she had found herself trapped in that horrible impasse where she was neither sane nor mad and willing to do anything to come down on a side of a fence, and with her experience it would have mostly been the wrong side without a guiding hand and one she would have chosen willingly just so a choice could be made…if she had not be offered a hand. And now that the hand had been offered, in her name, in a gesture that clarified reality, Violet found herself tumbling back towards sanity.

So to speak. While she may have escaped the snares of lunacy, that didn't mean her higher brain functions were all instantly reactivated. Far from it. Brought back to the land of the living, the immediate reaction of Violet Parr was simply and purely animalistic: she had no idea where she was, what was going on, and how many threats this lack of knowledge had. So her fight or flight instinct kicked in, and she did what was still more natural for her on a basic level, as she turned invisible.

Savior watched her wink out of existence, and his eyebrows narrowed, just a tad. Well, he hadn't thought that reaction was an impossibility. He ran through his options and decided trying to track her like she was a rabbit that had escaped from a trap would do more harm then good. Knowing that, he dispelled his Shimmer weapon and took a step forward, slowly looking around in as non-threatening a way as he could.

"Violet Parr. Invision." Savior said slowly and calmly. "I suppose this situation doesn't exactly build itself to trust. Humanity's greatest fear, since we began to learn to throw rocks, was always the unknown. You don't know me, you don't know what's going on, hell, I don't know if you're even still within the sound of my voice." Savior said. He glanced around again. "So let me try to dispel the unknown. My name's Savior. I'm a…Super, like you. I'm here to help. We found your brother Dash. He's very worried about you. I talked to him before I headed out. He said to say…Tony Rydinger is a bastard and a half."

Silence.

Savior pondered where to let the silence stand or keep talking.

And then, Violet shimmered back into existence, off to his right, semi crouched, wariness still in her eyes…but a wariness that was swiftly being crowded out by a soul shattering, overwhelming relief.

However, relief manifests itself in strange ways at times, as Violet's eyes suddenly teared up, her poise and brain shattering under a tidal wave of raw emotion, and then she fell into Savior's somewhat surprised arms, crying her eyes out, in her own way purging the horrific memories of her trip here and fully solidifying her grip on reality.

Savior stood stock still for a moment, and then adjusted his stance a tad, stroking Violet's long black hair, trying to put forth a comforting image. He felt rather awkward: this kind of outburst was something a girl should share with her mother, not a total stranger, but Helen Parr wasn't here, and Violet clearly, no matter how strong she might have been normally, needed a shoulder to lean on at the moment. And as harsh and cold as Noel could come off at times, he was fully aware of how humans needed kindness at times, if they deserved it.

"Shhhhhhhh." He whispered, feeling her tears stain his shirt. "You're safe. It's ok. It's ok."

It took Violet about three minutes of purging and weeping before she fully came to her senses and realized just what she was doing, as she jerked away from Savior, her moist eyes now showing some mortification.

"…Oh…I…well um…" Violet said, as she brought one of her hands behind her head in the way some people do. "I…sorry…I…I barely know you."

"It's ok. You went through something that would shatter the most hardened heart. A reaction like that is fully understandable." Savior said, as he hunted around in his jacket for a handkerchief, locating and offering it.

"No no, that's ok. I'm done, I'm done." Violet said, as she tried to adjust her mask…and found with a slight jolt of horror it had come off at some point in her weep session.

"Here." Savior said, offering the small black face concealment from where he had picked it up off the ground. "If it makes you feel comfortable. Your brother told me how your parents stressed secret identities. If it makes you feel better, my real name's Noel…Noel Collins." Savior said, taking a big step in trying to make Violet feel at ease. He figured it was worth the risk: there was no Maxwell Collins where she came from and hopefully she understood by her upbringing that such secrets were not given lightly and should not be taken so either.

"…Thank you, Noel." Violet said, taking her mask and actually looking at her rescuer (in a loose sense) for the first time, noting his genuine concern, his wise eyes…and his pretty attractive looks. She blinked.

"…You said Dash…oh my…Schism…what…" Violet stammered.

"It's ok Violet. Dash told me about Schism, about what happened…Violet, I can give you details later, but this is the basics. Something went really wrong and instead of warping you across town Schism warped you into another dimension."

"Another dimension?" Violet said incredulously.

"Yes…like I said I can explain the details later…but let's just say you've ended up in a good place. I'm a member of a local superhero group, the Teen Titans…we'd like to ask you back to our base for now. Your parents are still missing, and we believe (Noel did now anyway: Dash showing up alone had given him severe doubts, but when his sister had popped up not ten miles away, Noel revised his theory to near-certainty that all the Incredibles would end up in or near Jump City) that they'll show up soon, like you and your brother did. And once they do…we'd like to help get you back home."

"…But you barely know us…why?" Violet asked.

"…We're heroes. That's what heroes do." Savior said.

Violet blinked again. Handsome, compassionate, noble…and clearly well read.

A flush, ever so slight, went through her, even as her logical brain woke up and began yelling at her. Just from the minor details this Noel/Savior had told her, she had become involved in something big, perhaps much bigger then anything she had ever been part of. She needed to focus her mind on that, not something stupid like THAT…

And yet…she couldn't help but feel…

Savior, for his part, was oblivious to Violet's new look of subtle admiration: he had leader duties to attend to. Indeed, if he'd been paying attention, had watched Violet's eyes as a series of connections and building blocks fell into place in them, in a metaphorical sense, and read what that meant, he could have nipped what was about to happen in the bud.

But he didn't. He was focusing on pulling out his communicator.

"My team and I were out looking for you. I'm going to contact them and tell them I found you, and then arrange transportation back to our base slash home. Ok Violet?"

"Uh, sure." Violet said, as Savior's comment broke through the slight haze she had found herself in. Savior opened up said communicator and opened the general band.

"Savior here. I've located our new guest. Violet Parr, Dash's sister. Third floor of the 6th Main Warehouse, down at the corner of Mortimer and Wellwood…"

"Great!" Gauntlet's voice suddenly snapped out, startling Noel a bit. Gauntlet didn't say anything else, and a few seconds later Beast Boy and Terra confirmed his message and said they'd get the spare T-Car and drive it over.

"They're on their way." Savior said, snapping the communicator closed. "If you would follow me. I must warn…"

Savior suddenly found Violet right up next to him, her arms circling through one of his. He stopped.

"Difficulty walking?" He asked.

Violet blinked as she realized what she had just done. Her newfound confidence after Syndrome plus what Tony had done plus the fact that a small part of her still wasn't sure which way was up…

"…Sorry. Bit dizzy. I stumbled." Violet said, as she took her arms away. _Or maybe stumble is the wrong word. Maybe I've fallen…_

"As I was saying, I must give you a warning. Some of my teammates may look a little stranger then you're used to. We have superheroes here in this world as well, but we seem to have them in several other kinds of archetypes then your world, so some of them might seem a little odd…"

"Heeeeeeeey!" Gauntlet yelled as he leapt through the open doorway, doing a perfect Fonz.

Perhaps he should have tried a Joey Tribbiani, as Violet's reaction was to yell in surprise and then fire off a shield orb, slamming Gauntlet backwards and against the wall.

"Whoa! Hold it! He's on our side!" Savior said, putting up a hand. Violet blinked.

"He's one of your teammates?"

"Yes." Savior replied, deciding he'd spare Violet his and Rob's usual and not exactly jovial exchanges.

"…One of the archetypes you were talking about?"

"I think he deserves a category all to himself." Savior said. "Violet Parr, Robert Candide. Gauntlet in the business. Gauntlet, Violet Parr. I think Dash said you call yourself Invision now."

"You found that out?" Violet asked.

"I always listen for what needs to be known." Savior replied.

_And he listens too…_Violet thought.

"Ahem…ohhhhh Violet!" Gauntlet said, as he staggered back into the room. "Violet Parr! You're as lovely as you were in the mov…ing description your brother gave of you. All four of you." Gauntlet said, and then shook his head to clear his senses. "I'm Gauntlet! Pleased to meet you!" He said, thrusting out his hand and nearly shoving it into Violet's before she even got a chance to reciprocate.

"Uh…hi…" Violet said tentatively, as she reached forward.

Then her nostrils twitched.

"UGH. What is that TERRIBLE smell?" She said, backing up a bit, and Rob's face fell as he realized just what she was talking about. _Quick! Say something clever!_

"…Uh." Rob blurted out.

"He was helping look for you, and he thought you might have come out into a dumpster and gotten buried or been hurt or something in that vein." Savior explained calmly, not using any type of putting down or sarcasm in his tone. Somehow, that just made it worse for Rob, as he frantically wracked his brain, his brain that was usually so lightning quick, trying to find a response.

"You thought I'd be in a dumpster?" Violet asked. "What, did you think I'd burrow under the trash?"

"Well…uh…I considered it?" Gauntlet said.

The look in her eyes said it all, as she looked offended.

"Um Violet, I must explain. Your brother…something in your dimensional trip didn't react well with his brain. He came out completely mad, and he'd still be so if my powers didn't have the benefit of being able to help with brain damage. We honestly had no idea what kind of mental state you'd be in when you came out, so we had to cover all the bases. Including, I suppose, rooting through trash." Savior said.

"Dash came out insane?" Violet said, horrified.

"Yes yes, but don't worry. I fixed him."

"Fixed him?"

"Yes. He's fine. In fact he keeps hitting on one of my teammates. Which is annoying because she's seven years older then him and in another relationship."

Violet found herself laughing.

"That's Dash all right…if what you say is true, thank you. My little brother's an unbelievable pest, but I don't know what I'd do without him." Violet said, and much to Rob's horror, she gave Noel a hug.

"No need to thank me." Savior said.

"You can thank me! I helped catch Dash too!" Rob said. Violet turned towards him, and while her look was not unkind, there was enough reserve in it to plunge Rob's heart again.

"Thank you too Robert. I'd hug you but well…please, a shower is highly recommended." Violet said.

"…Ok." Rob said.

"Well Violet, you met Rob. May as well introduce you to the rest of the family, get you back to see your brother, examine you for any injuries that we may have missed. Come with us." Noel said.

"Ok." Violet said, as she fell into step with Noel, walking past Gauntlet.

Who, unlike Noel, was not distracted by other issues, and hence saw the look in her eyes. And just who it was directed at.

* * *

The Council of Rob's Psyche.

"This isn't fair! He already HAS a girl! Why is he horning in on another one?" Rob's Id complained bitterly.

"Now guys, it certainly can't be as bad as it looks..." Rob's Ego replied.

"I concur." Rob's Superego agreed. "Certainly he wouldn't be cheating on Raven."

"But if he is, we can catch Raven on the rebound!" Id proclaimed.

"Do you FEEL like being magically castrated?"

"...I repeal the motion." Id said.

"I propose that we just watch and wait. We don't need a repeat of the Power Girl incident." Ego said.

"Agreed!"

And now back to reality.

* * *

"It's just not right! This ALWAYS happens! I join a superhero team, all the girls are taken! I go to Tamaran, my hair color in their society declares I'm sterile! I meet a nice girl, her damn dad wrecks everything! And once again, a perfectly good available girl shows up, and what happens? Noel just happens to be there before me, and she falls all over him! Ugh! I am going to look up his records and make sure he didn't change his last name from Stu!" Gauntlet groused from where he was sitting on Terra's rock. Gauntlet's unpleasant smell had quickly gotten him vetoed out of riding in the T-Car, and hence Terra had been forced to carry him home while Beast Boy drove (much to his delight), Batgirl rode shotgun, and Savior sat with Violet in the back seat…which was another thing that irked him.

"Well Rob…I don't know what to say. I mean hey, you were the one who first helped me get a grip on my powers, and I'm forever grateful…but you never really gave any indication that you'd like that kind of gratitude, and hey, it's too late now." Terra said, and shrugged. The way she was flying her rock kept her downwind from Rob, hence she didn't have to worry about his unpleasant odor.

"But still! The girl! Available! Recently broken up with her boyfriend! Me! Also available! Quite insistent about said fact! Noel! Not available! Getting fawned all over anyway! ARGH!"

"Rob, relax. You know Noel's emotional states. It takes forever to get around his barriers, but once you've earned his loyalty he holds that loyalty like a fanatic. He wouldn't even look at another girl, and even if Raven broke it off with him, I think it'd take a while for him to get back into the game. He won't be doing anything with Violet. Your first impression may have been rotten, but trust me, I more then anyone here believe in second chances. This team gave me the mother of them."

"But…he…and she…in the backseat!"

"And it can't be innocent?"

"What kind of innocent doings could go on in a backseat?"

* * *

"Your brain seems fine." Savior said as he withdrew the Shimmer strands from Violet's ears. "You're lucky Violet."

"I didn't feel lucky." She said.

"Maybe not, but don't worry about those memories and feelings. I erased them."

"…You erased them?"

"No need for you to have nightmares for years." Savior replied.

Violet found herself flushing again, and almost went invisible to hide it before she realized that Savior was leaning into the front seat and conversing with the green furred humanoid named Beast Boy, who she HAD thought was odd at first, but had instantly reminded her of Dash the second he opened his mouth, and hence kept her from feeling any discomfort. Indeed, she'd been a bit more bothered by the black suited Batgirl, though it had helped when the girl had tugged her mask down to reveal she was a teenage girl just like Violet. Savior was speaking with them instead of looking at her, attending to the duties of his team. Well, no matter. She was still making up her mind, and if she did, if she wanted him to notice her, he would.

"The fact that you had such a lessened reaction bears notice though." Savior said as he returned to the backseat. "Were you doing anything when you went into Schism's portal?"

"…I had a shield around me." Violet said, finally remembering.

"Hmmm. That would explain a lot." Savior said. "Well Violet, the good news is your shield saved you from brain damage…horrific images and nearly going mad aside. The bad news is…your parents have no such shields. When they emerge…chances are they'll be like your brother was."

Violet let the words wash over her, and while they stirred fear in her heart, she didn't let it show on her face, as she nodded.

"Can you help them like you helped Dash?"

"I don't see why not. But there's a different problem Violet. Your brother's speed made catching him extremely difficult. Your parent's powers, the small details I've learned, present a whole new set of challenges. I'll warn you…we might have to go to extreme lengths to prevent them from hurting themselves and others…quite possibly quite extreme, indeed."

Violet took it in.

"…You do what you have to do. I can tell you're a man who carefully considers his actions and choices. You won't do anything lightly, or choose either."

"I'm glad we understand each other." Savior replied. "Now Violet, I've given you a check, but I'm not trained as a doctor. One of my teammates is, so I'd like to ask you, when we get back, to…"

And then the car suddenly thudded with a underside collision, and Noel found a sudden blast of momentum throwing him upward, his head slamming against the ceiling with fair impact, as he fell back down into the seat, clutching his cranium.

"Ow! Damn it Gar, this is why Victor never lets you drive!"

"I swear that wasn't my fault! I was watching the road! I never saw that pothole! I swear it must have materialized right before my quivering eyeballs!" Beast Boy protested as he turned around to face Savior.

"Did that so called materialization happen while you were fiddling with the radio knobs trying to see if Cyborg's immensely powerful system could pick up TV signals, or when you were pressing buttons to see if Cyborg had installed a milkshake maker in the front of the vehicle?"

"Dude, that's just harsh! I may not get behind the wheel very often but that doesn't mean I'm bad at it! In fact, I'd say I…!"

"Beast Boy, you are driving on the sidewalk." Batgirl calmly intoned. Beast Boy's eyes widened, and then he jerked back to face the road and shrieked as a newspaper box filled his field of vision, jerking the car back onto the road in a narrow miss.

Violet watched, her amusement growing, and it finally broke as Savior fully got up, his hair squashed flat from the impact: she started laughing, out of control, and Noel looked at her and then made an attempt to smooth his hair, which for some reason made her laugh even harder, and yes, she was still stuck in another dimension with teens she barely knew and who knew how they were going to find her parents and get home…but at the moment, she didn't care.

There were worse things in life.

Far worse.

* * *

There are surprises in life too, as the Titans got back to the Tower to find something they did not expect.

Outside of the Tower was a huge truck, and when I say huge I meant that it was surprising the bridge was still intact after it had crossed over. It really was a large monster, painted in the kind of dark gray that was usually be found on a war ship in the military. The cabin was so large one a six-footer would probably have found it rather roomy, though the mechanisms on the inside seemed to be adapted for a smaller occupant.

"Whoa. Who decided to let Gravedigger park here?" Terra said as she touched her rock down. Curious himself, Rob headed over and jumped up the steps to look in to the cab. He found a gear stick inside marked from one to five and a lever on the dash that was labeled 'high' and 'low'. From his somewhat basic grasp of automobiles, that was a switch so the driver could change the gears. In essence, it had two gearboxes, which made for ten gears; double that of a normal car or truck.

But seeing the hood, they could understand why: it was almost the size of the T-Car, and by that I mean the entire T-Car could have fit inside the engine of the truck.

T-car sized engine. The mind boggles at the pure power that kind of machinery could deliver.

Of course, that didn't mean anything if someone didn't turn it on. And no one was there. So the gigantic truck, which as well as itself had on the back of its cab a long trailer, adding even more mass to the machine (it was amazing the whole thing hadn't sunk the island yet) stood there, motionless.

Which was a problem as it was parked in front of the garage.

"Hmmmmm. Responsible." Batgirl commented as the passengers of the T-Car got out and looked at the mammoth machine.

"Geez. That thing's bigger then some of the doomsday machines my dad and mom stopped in their glory days." Violet said as she looked at the truck…and continued looking up past it at the T-Tower. "Wow…that's…big too."

"Yep. This is Titans Tower, the bastion against crime and evil in Jump City!" Gauntlet said as he ran back over to Violet…who still shrunk away from him a bit: evidently his odor hadn't much improved.

"If you're going to comment on the wisdom of building such an open air, attackable structure, I will point I wasn't here for the building, but at least out here there are no innocents who will get hurt if some villain targets us." Savior said.

"I guess." Violet said.

"How are we going to get the vehicle inside?" Batgirl asked.

"Simple. We go in there and find out who drove it in and get them to move it and hope changing its position doesn't alter earth's gravitational fields." Savior said, making a complicated comment on the size of the truck. "Someone has to stay outside and wait with the car. Usually that's the driver."

"What? Dude you're just paying me back for making you mess up your precious hair, make me sit out in the hot sun and…oh." Beast Boy said, as he realized he could just sit in the T-Car and blast the air conditioning. "Ok."

"What is that doing here anyway?" Terra asked as Beast Boy got back into the car and began driving it around to face the blocked garage doors.

"You got me, though I'll bet this is why Cyborg had to head back here." Savior said, examining the truck again. From what they could see from the trailer, it had been recently unpacked, though the straps were still on it and hanging loosely from the sides. Since they couldn't get in through the garage, they had to walk around the island to get inside the Tower, leaving the juggernaut behind.

"You always show guests this good a time?" Violet asked as the Titans poked their way across some rocky terrain.

"I apologize. Seems there's been a lot going on recently that's been out of my hands." Savior said.

"Terra! Why don't you get a rock and float our guest! She had a hard trip!" Gauntlet said.

"What? Gauntlet, I just got back from carrying you across town! I need a moment to rest! You want to give me heatstroke?"

"Come on! Don't be lazy! You can…"

"We're here." Savior said, as they arrived at the door, Savior keying in the number code and ushering Violet inside.

They found Scalpel, Sophie, and Dash waiting for them in the entrance room.

"VIOLET!" Dash yelled, as he was suddenly across the room and leaping into her arms in a very unDashlike way…but you probably know why. Violet did too, as instead of shoving him off as she normally would she just returned his hug like she thought if she released him he'd vanish before her eyes again.

It took them approximately eight seconds before their old habits kicked in, as their eyes opened and then they nearly threw each other away from themselves.

"…I was worried. Good to see you're ok." Dash said with some embarrassment.

"Yeah…yeah you too." Violet replied.

"Ah siblings. So glad I'm an only child." Gauntlet said.

"You're not an only child. You have an older brother." Savior pointed out.

"Darn it! I'd almost convinced myself he was an evil imperfect clone!"

"What are you talking about?"

"…I don't know!" Rob said, and he honestly found he didn't. Ever since he'd seen what Violet had…no no. He just needed to drink a Coke and calm down, then he'd turn the whole thing around.

"Nigel, I'd like you to examine Violet, make sure she doesn't have any injuries."

"As you wish." Nigel replied. As predicted, Violet looked a bit shaken as she finally saw the alien.

"Oh don't worry Sis! He's cool! He just looks a little weird!" Dash said, and slapped Nigel on the leg.

The reflexive kick only missed because Dash was so short. He stood there, stunned and horrified at how close he had come to being decapitated.

"…Heh. Oops. Sorry. Army combat training tends to breed inflexible reactions." Nigel said. Dash had by now turned a shade of gray quite similar to Nigel.

"Hah. New world, same old little brother. And I do mean LITTLE." Violet cracked.

"Hey! I'm just a late bloomer! Dad said so! You heard him!" Dash yelled back, his color abruptly returning as he proceeded to get in Violet's face, as the two recommenced their usual means of communication: argument.

"Ah, that's better. Back in character." Gauntlet said. Savior, who had been talking with Batgirl, finished up, noticed the argument, rolled his eyes, and then walked over.

"Violet, you'll go with Dr. Hastings?" Savior asked.

"Um…yeah. If Dash says he's ok he must be."

"Hah! So you DO think I'm right!"

"By the sheer fact of random chance you had to be eventually!" Violet snapped back, and the argument recommenced. Savior rolled his eyes again.

"Ok Gauntlet, Terra, you look after the siblings, feed them, do whatever you have to. I'm going to go find out who invited Minion over." Savior said, and headed off down the hallway.

"Will he be back?" Gauntlet suddenly found Violet asking him, and he groaned inside…and then realized this was his chance.

"Noel? Eh, probably. You should go with Nigel now though, make sure you're ok…"

Savior headed down to the main lounge, where he expected to find whatever had been on the truck and whoever had driven it. He was right.

What was on the truck had been crates. Crates that now filled the lounge. Lots of crates. Big ass crates. And with them was the person who had brought them. So to speak.

Standing next to Cyborg with a crowbar in her hands was a five foot five woman, wearing a black and white dress of the Gothic & Lolita persuasion, with the frilly front, frilly cuffs, multiple layers and the puffed up shoulders, along with the skirt that, while it reached her knees, puffed out a little, almost like a doll's dress would. It even had a petticoat going under it. From a distance it seemed as if she was also wearing black and white stripped stockings, but in actual fact they were her legs. Another thing that was striking about her was that her skin seemed to be a dull blue/green color, as well as her hair being a deep, dark crimson that seemed to, somehow, shine black where the sun collided with it. Her eyes seemed lifeless, but not soulless: they were a dark color, though it was too dark to distinguish exactly what color that was though.

At the moment she was opening one of the larger crates, or at least attempting to, while Cyborg looked over the manifest list, his back turned to the strange person that was there and having great difficulty opening a crate. It was the first time Savior had seen someone put so much effort into something (it was a DAMN big crate), and not show a whit of it on their face. Then again, as he recognized her, that was hardly surprising.

The young redheaded woman looked up and paused in her seemingly futile attempts to break open the crate and its contents.

"Well hello." She said, rather coldly. But it wasn't ice cold, it was just rather... flat.

"Good day Viridian." Savior said, allowing himself a slight smile as he thought of all the readers cringing that yet ANOTHER character was being introduced…

* * *

Yes, it was Viridian! A distant ally of the Titans, she was a young android who had been created a few years ago to fulfill a plot in which her clones, her 'children' would end up being sold to the highest bidder and then started a war for profit. She escaped with the aid of the Titans, but if you want to find out the whole story, then do yourself a favor, and read Flashing Lights and Sounds by the miraculous Jedi-and! And yes, don't worry, Legend Maker will be back writing soon (as I have stolen her computer), but allow me to babble on a FEW more moments. She had appeared and helped the Titans numerous times, but was still not an official Titan by any standards, which was something that Noel wondered if he could rectify. She would be a good Titan, and would be good at base defenses, as she didn't need to sleep. But this was Noel thinking in military terms, not hero…oh dear Legend Maker seems to have axed her way out of the bathroom…methinks I better go…

**_Blasted Brit…

* * *

_**"Savior. I apologized for being late to Cyborg, so I won't repeat it." Viridian stated. "But I have brought everything you asked for. Low caliber photon rifles, machine guns, wall mounts to adapt existing weapons to base defenses, tear-gas launchers, energy nets, lots more 'toys' and the type 3 Ion Cannon you requested."

"Wait, a WHAT!" Cyborg yelled, looking up from the invoice sheet, as Noel mused that his pondering of where his defense request had gone had had apt timing: it had shown up that very hour. While the Titans were all out of course: god forbid coincidence could ever be GOOD for them…

"A type 3, ground based Ion Cannon. I also have the back-up generator for such a weapon so it can be fired with the power off, however it takes ten minutes for the generator to warm up and another five so it can be used safely."

"NOEL! YOU ORDERED A WEAPON THAT CAN DESTROY THE WATCHTOWER!" Cyborg bellowed, glaring at Noel. Indeed Ion cannons, while being mainly spaced base, could be land based. Type one was a space based, orbital cannon, like the one on the Watchtower belonging to the JLA. Type two was a high-atmospheric, one shot ion cannon, which as explained fired one shot and then collapsed, or had to take a while to recharge, running on the gasses in the ozone, like carbon dioxide… Lord knew how that worked exactly. Finally there were the land based Ion cannons, the type three which could fire upon the type ones and twos without much trouble, but they had to have a lot of cooling equipment as they were not in the cold of space, hence a large number of the boxes and hence, the truck.

"Yes, I did ask, and the next time Scrapheap shows up in a giant junk body or the Puppet King pulls out his Puppet Golem again, you'll thank me. And speaking of thanks, thank you for bringing it Bliss." Noel nodded to Viridian, or Bliss as her 'real name' was.

"No need to thank me, I was ordered to do it." She replied simply, and as Cyborg shot another glare at his white haired friend, Viridian once again took up her seemingly endless struggle involving the crowbar and a stubborn lid.

"Well then, perhaps you could rectify something. I could have sworn I said that looking like a china doll was impractical." The white-haired Titan commented, referring to Viridian's clothes as he watched her exertion.

"And you being the height of fashion would know this." She commented offhandedly as she put all her weight into getting the lid off, and seeing as she was made out of metal, that was surprisingly heavy. Her weight, even though she had a slender frame, was enough to finally rip the lid off and throw her to the floor…along with Viridian. She got up and dusted herself off.

"That doesn't look like Ion cannon parts to me." Cyborg commented, peering in the very large crate.

And indeed, Viridian groaned as she took a look herself, for he was right. Inside were many metallic and techno odds and ends, which looked like they could be assembled to form a colossal human-esque figure, minus the head. It stood at least six foot five inches, nearly as large as Cyborg (without the head on it), and it was large and blocky, many pieces sprouting from it, some attached to larger parts and some just there in and of themselves. The teen machine picked up a long, heavy tube with a bag on one end, which he removed to find a muzzle.

"Bliss...these are tank parts."

"How embarrassing." Bliss commented, still in that semi-dead tone, though now it had a hint of frustration and hesitance as she held her head. "It seems, due to a clerical error, I have brought the wrong box. Sorry gentlemen, no Ion Cannon today."

"Aww…" This was one of the few moments Noel allowed himself a human expression. "So what are these then?"

"Well they are body parts... for me." She paused. "A few months back, the guys in Uberton made me this body for a science project...it…um..." She cut herself off and mumbled the last of the sentence, making it barely audible, but noticeable all the same.

"What?"

"Transforms." She finished reluctantly. "They made a transforming armor for me."

"Transforms? You mean more then meets the eye ruh ruh ruh ruh ruh ruh ruh?" Cyborg said, perfectly mimicking the electronic noise the Transformers in the older cartoons had made when they changed shape.

"Yes. I would be able to turn into a tank at will."

"A tank? More like a moving weapons platform. This box has more firepower then most third world countries." Savior commented.

"Yes. I noticed that, which is understandable as I have such better eyes then you." Bliss replied.

"Viridian…why are you hauling this around? If they built it, why not use it?" Cyborg asked.

"I am a person, not a weapon, I have said that to you time and time again."

"Oh. Right. Your 'I am not a gun' hangup." Cyborg said. "Well, all the same, welcome back to Jump City."

"To be honest I'm grateful."

"Grateful?"

"You got me out of Uberton, that's something worth thanking."

"What, are they that bad?"

Placing the back of her hand on her forehead, Viridian arced her back and placed her knees together in what only could be described as a feminine pose.

"Oh for shame. How sad a life I have, without Robert my fleshy existence is meaningless. I must... write poetry and join school plays to show how angsty I truly am." Bliss said. Savior darkly chuckled to himself. The girl Viridian was mimicking was Amy Erickson, aka Paragon, the literal girl next door to Rob's hometown of Ubertron who of course had loved him since the first grade, and he didn't have a clue. It was one of the things Savior kept his mouth shut about: he would criticize Gauntlet on his performance all he wanted but he'd stay out of business that frankly wasn't his.

Viridian lowered her hands and returned to her default pose. "I still don't understand how you organics are the planet's 'superior' race."

"We're too stubborn and stupid to admit otherwise." Savior said as he finished poking through another crate. "Is everything in here?"

"Pretty much."

"Good, then you can get yourself outside and move that gigantic reject from _Duel_ out of the way so we can actually use our garage, and also you can move a bunch of these crates into more appropriate areas as we're entertaining more then a few guests and expect more, so we need the space. And try not to run over Beast Boy or break the island in half when you move the truck."

"And since when did you become my master?"

"Since now. Come on, really." Savior said.

"As you wish, but I do this more out of my needs then yours." Viridian said, and picked up a crate with one arm and headed out of the room.

"Still hasn't lost that damn HAL tone." Savior commented.

"Hey knock it off man. I was the one who helped free her, not you. She can use any damn voice tone she wants." Cyborg said. "So, you found the source of the signal."

"Mmmm-hmmm. Dash's sister, Violet Parr. She was apparently spared the madness that claimed her brother due to her force field power. I cleaned up the damage it did do and gave her to Nigel, who will hopefully find nothing else wrong. Got the computer set up to read any more emergences of the signal?"

"Not just that, I launched probes so that we can zero in on it not just in the city but in a five mile radius beyond it."

"Good work Cyborg."

"You expected anything less?"

"No. I do have a request Victor: I've decided that I'm going nightwalking tonight. Batgirl's coming with me. So I'm going to grab a nap now for several hours. Think you can handle being in charge until then?"

"Handle it? Heck, by the time you wake up they'll all have voted me in as permanent leader and Tim can suck on a lemon." Cyborg said, and grinned wickedly.

"You do that." Savior said, as he left the room.

* * *

Savior had fully expected to be woken up by the Tower's alarm, signaling that either Violet and Dash's parents or some other trouble had emerged to bother him, and was rather surprised that what woke him up was the low buzzing of his own alarm. He blinked and then shut it off. It was a little after 9 PM, just as he planned. Well, at least some things went right.

Savior took a shower, selected the best of his clothing/battle outfits, added several trinkets he though he might need, procured a few cash rolls for bribery in the special box Robin kept that only he, Raven, and Cyborg knew about, and headed back downstairs to see if there were any problems.

There were none: indeed life was going on in the T-Tower just as it did when there were no immediate threats. Savior wasn't surprised Dash and Violet had integrated so quickly. The Titans' motto had once been 'Truth, Justice, Pizza' and they'd known how to have fun before he showed up and showed a predilection for wrecking such things.

Dash was in the kitchen, eating ice cream and talking with Sophie, Terra, Cyborg, and Scalpel. Cyborg was apparently telling a story, so Savior went into the fridge, and dug all the way to the back until he found the special nutrient drink that Nigel had several cans of. It was one of many things Nigel had brought to the Titans' life from his 'all war, all the time' society: the liquid within would provide Noel with all the vitamins and whatnot a human body could need for up to thirty-six hours. The problem was, it tasted vile, so not many of the Titans cared to drink it. Even Noel had to chase it down with chocolate milk.

"I mean, I didn't much take it seriously at first, but when I met him…I mean geez! I had trouble fighting him, I was laughing so hard at times!" Cyborg was saying as Noel walked up.

"Evening people."

"Hey Noel." Came the general reply.

"You doing all right Dash?"

"You guys have awesome adventures! I want to stay here with you!" Dash said. Noel chuckled.

"What are we discussing?"

"The Ventriloquist." Terra volunteered.

"Ah Mister Wesker. Let me guess: about how he can't pronounce the letter B and hence everything he says has a G sound in its place."

"Exactly. You should hear the guy Noel. 'Gatman and Rogin! How did you find my gase? Well it doesn't matter, I have yet gegun to fight! And that means you too, Cygorg!'" Cyborg said, doing a near perfect imitation of Albert Wesker's voice. Noel chuckled a bit, though he couldn't help reminding himself of the darker facts behind the amusement: Albert Wesker, aka the Ventriloquist, was a dangerous schizophrenic whose dark side split manifested around a wooden dummy named Scarface, a puppet carved from a tree that had been used as the site for hundreds of hangings. You thought it was funny until Scarface (in reality Wesker, but he was nuts and wasn't really aware of the fact) whipped out a mini machine gun whose bullets were just as deadly as normal sized ones.

"How you feeling though Dash? How are your legs?"

"Still sore. Probably need another day's rest. Or a real good massage." Dash said, glancing sidelong at Terra.

"Not in this or any lifetime kid."

"Awwwwwwwww."

"Cyborg, could I speak to you for a moment?"

"Sure Noel." Cyborg said as he got up and followed Noel out of the kitchen. "What's up?"

"Nothing much. I assume no problems?"

"Nope. Violet's fine, I explained exactly what happened to her with the Super Strings and all, she understood it, we ordered food, had ourselves a party, kept an eye on the computer, nothing yet. You can rest easy."

"I assumed I could…but there's something else Victor."

"Oh?"

"I don't know how to say this, so I'll be all-encompassing in my query. Are you ok?"

"What?"

"Are you all right?"

"Why do you ask that?"

"Vic…you haven't quite been yourself. Oh, you're still fighting and gaming and building and booyahing, but something…well, I get the impression something's off."

Cyborg had a prickle of unease. He should have figured that if anyone was going to puzzle it out, it would be Noel. But Noel still apparently had no idea of the specifics, and Cyborg didn't much feel like telling him them because he knew exactly what Noel would say. Fortunately he didn't show his unrest: being half machine gave you one hell of a poker face.

"Like what?"

"Well…all the time you spend in your room…when something urgent isn't preoccupying your mind you seem to go off into a zone like you're pondering a knotty problem…and how that preoccupying keeps making you hand your half of the leadership duties over to me. Vic, I need you for a balance. By myself, it's just too easy to slip into old habits, my usual way of doing things…things that usually go over with the rest of our friends as well as a lead balloon. And even I know that's not a good thing."

"…I suppose." Cyborg said quietly.

"I'm going to assume that even if there was something, you wouldn't want to talk about it."

_Sure Noel. Just not to you. You're too close. I never blamed you for a second, but in a roundabout way the reason the last woman I loved died was because of you. Now I'm beginning to really think that I'm having those feelings again…for someone you would never accept. Perhaps never could accept. Not with the way you view humanity._

"…I'm all right Noel. Just a little off. If you think I'm not picking up my slack, I'll start. But be careful now, or you'll find yourself out of a job." Cyborg said, grinning in an attempt to mask his disquiet. If Noel saw through it, he said nothing.

"Yeah well, it's still your job for the moment. I'm going out to hunt the night…which reminds me. You're telling Dash stories?"

"Yeah."

"…I really think I shouldn't have to ask this, but I'll do it anyway: are they APPROPRIATE stories?"

"Appro…oh yeah yeah. The harmless stuff. When we got sucked into Mumbo's hat and were running around the TV with Control Freak and Kwhiz Kid and all that. Nothing about the likes of Jack and the Sorceress."

"Good."

"You think he's too young?"

"I think age is meaningless: most people should never be exposed to such things, even in secondhand information. It is one of my great regrets that such actions are one of the things I can never stop." Noel mused.

"Even if he was older, I wouldn't tell him. He's told us a lot of stories about his world too…it's a lot like ours, but if what Dash has seen and heard can be said to be an accurate observation, it seems a lot…"

"Purer?"

"Yeah. Lots of mad scientists building death rays and newly empowered wackos out robbing banks…but no one ever seemed to die or get seriously hurt…at least in the past. Dash told us about that Syndrome, how he killed so many of the 'Supers' in order to get to his dad, to test a machine, and it makes me wonder…maybe whatever darkness we're familiar with has finally started creeping into his world."

Savior sighed at this.

"It makes me wonder too…why does this happen? Why does something that, despite being against the laws of society, villainous even, somehow seem quaint and almost innocent when looked at in retrospect? How in the old days the good guys always seemed to win and the bad guys went to jail and that was that…and then it just seemed to get…darker. Is this an inevitable transition for superhuman evil? That it starts out enjoying itself almost as much as the heroes, and then starts becoming blacker…sicker…more inhuman…until we have madmen becoming gods and burning down most of a city because he honestly believes it deserves to die? Or bloodthirsty aliens literally taking a bite out of their opponents not for any tactical advantage or the fact they're hungry but because they like doing it? Or…well, we could go down that rabbit hole forever, and it's probably not wise. We might find out it doesn't have a bottom."

"Are you going to keep brooding, because if you are, I think Terra is telling the story of when that damn virus infected me and I have to do damage control. Later Noel. Don't get too bleak, it's not healthy." Cyborg said, and went back into the kitchen.

"Heh. Unhealthy." Savior mused. "Symptoms of a sick world perhaps? Or maybe just growing pains? In whatever case, I'll stand tall against it."

Savior heard the yells all the way down the hall as he hunted for Batgirl, annoyed that she didn't have a communicator. He peered into the lounge and saw Beast Boy standing up, waving a controller around as he yelled at Viridian, who was sitting on the couch and calmly watching him as if he was sitting reading a book instead of yelling at her.

"…plug yourself right into the Gamestation! Foul! I cry foul!" Beast Boy said, and then turned into a chicken.

"You wished to play me, and therefore wished to play against any and all advantages I might possess, which include linking my systems of that of the game playing machine. It is not my fault you decided to challenge such a superior opponent in a medium where you could be trounced so easily and repeatedly."

"But the…with the…haven't you ever heard of fair play?"

"Fair play? From your species? The same ones who gave diseased blankets to native people in order to take their land or just took other people outright to serve as slaves? The ones who inject steroids into themselves for sporting events or change numbers around in their business' accounting books in order to seem like they're making more money then they are? Yes, you meatbags really have a strong position to talk about fair play."

"Are you blaming me for the sins of humanity, past and present?"

"No Garfield Logan. I am simply pointing out you don't have a leg to stand on. So either accept your inferiority in this matter or choose another."

"Why you…" Gar said in his best Three Stooges, at which point Noel got tired of listening and resumed searching.

* * *

It had taken some time, but Rob thought he was finally making headway into the Violet issue. She'd stopped wearing her mask around him at least. And Noel not being around had probably helped. Still, he had to tread carefully, otherwise instead of giving her a gentle push away from Noel he'd shove her right into his arms, at which point Noel would probably tell her he wasn't interested and…hmmmm, maybe he SHOULD shove her into his…no no, knowing Noel's luck with women he'd probably end up convincing Raven to have a ménage a…no no even NOEL wasn't that good in that aspect…

"Rob? Shouldn't leave your mouth open. It attracts flies." Violet commented. Rob snapped out of his daze, again annoyed. What was going on? He admitted he neither had nor cared for a mind sharpened to a razor's edge like Tim or Noel, but he wasn't a drooling moron, like Noel sometimes insinuated in his fouler moods. Why did he keep zoning out? Maybe it had something to do with the fact he was sitting next to a fictional girl made real…a fact that only his brain still seemed to know. Rob had done some research in the past few hours. Every time he had tried to access a webpage with information on the Incredibles, the computer had crashed. And he had a feeling that if he went out to a video store on the hunt for a copy of the film, it would prove as elusive as the so-called true snuff film. Maybe his daze had something to do with his brain trying to cope with its exclusive knowledge…or maybe he had had such bad luck with women that he was subconsciously setting himself up to fail because that's what seemingly always happened…and why should he be obsessing over such theories? That was what NOEL did. He wanted Violet to like him for him.

Maybe he should cut through the games and just be delicately blunt.

"So Violet…how do you like this place?" Rob said. He figured that was as good a line as any, as he'd just finished telling her about how he'd come to join the Titans. She'd seemed interested, in more then a professional sense…though that might have just been him…no no no! No thinking along those lines!

"Freaked me out a bit at first. I'm not used to such, how shall I say, in your face bases. Even before the lawsuits that drove my parents into exile, the superhero groups tended to prefer subtler, concealed places to work in, and since our return we're still re-discovering how to do business, as it were, much less getting back into some of their old haunts. But inside, I can see why you keep it. This really is a place one could call home."

_Hmmmmmm. Sounds like she might be interested in staying even if we could find her a way back. Perhaps…_

"Yes, it's a great place. For great people, if I may say so." Rob said. "And actually…something occurs to me."

"What?"

"Well…you say that you could see this as home…"

"Yes?"

"Well…um…there's no real way around this, so I'll just say it. There might be someone in here that's…interested in you."

"Oh?" Violet said, as a very minute flush once again pervaded her features. Blast. She'd been with Tony so long she'd forgotten what it was like to be shy at times.

"Yes…so interesting you say this place seems like home…because he's wondering…want to try it…as home?"

"Well…I don't know…who is this person?"

"Oh…he's close. Closer then you realize. In fact…" Rob said.

And then, life crept out of the shadows, cackling wickedly, and drove the lone dagger Rob agonized over at times in his back once more, as Noel picked that EXACT moment to walk into the room.

"…Noel!" Rob said. And while his voice conveyed it as him being surprised Noel had shown up, what he really meant was "Not now! What, did you do this on purpose?"

"Rob, Violet." Noel replied, and started across the room.

Rob suddenly found Violet looking at him, and before he could say anything, she took and patted his hand.

"I see." She said. "Thanks Rob. You're a good friend."

Rob didn't have any time to dwell on how the rug had been neatly yanked out from under him again: Noel was heading over to them, and Violet was looking at him again.

"Hi Noel. Where were you?" Violet asked.

"Resting. I'm going out for the night, and it's best to be fresh for such things." Noel said.

"Have you seen Batgirl Rob?"

"Uh…she was around here a minute ago…wait a minute. You're going out vigilanting with her?"

"I have a need to."

"…Noel, I admit that when it comes to thinking ahead, you and I are, so to speak, not quite on the same level, in more then one way, but even I know that going out in the dark in a bright white outfit is a bad idea. Sure, criminals are a superstitious, cowardly lot, but you don't have to be a brave and mentally adroit person to point a gun at such an obvious target and…"

While Rob had been speaking, Noel had removed something from an inner jacket pocket, and as Rob was finishing up Noel twisted it.

A flash of color surged over him, and when it was done Noel's clothes were now jet black, like a motorcycle rider. As well, a shaved scalp had replaced his long pointed white hair.

"I know Rob, but thanks for pointing it out." Noel said, as he tucked the holopin back into his jacket.

Rob stared.

"…Huh. Look at that. From white bread to white trash within a second."

"Rob!" Violet said, slapping Rob's shoulder. "Don't be so rude!"

"It's all right Violet. Rob prides himself on his quips, may as well let him stay sharp." Noel said. He was about to say something else, when he noticed a flutter of movement in the corner of his eye and turned to see Batgirl now in the hallway entrance he had come from, waiting for him. Well, looks like she had found him instead. That would do.

"All right. You ok Violet?"

"Yes, I'm fine Noel."

"Good. All right, I'm going out for the night. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask the other Titans."

"Ok."

"Like I said, I'll be out late Rob, so don't wait up. My communicator is turned off: only an emergency signal will get through, so please don't hail me unless it IS an emergency. And we've run out of Pepsi, could I please get some more since I'm in the city, is still not under those guidelines."

"D'oh!"

"Besides, there's plenty in the fridge. I'll be going now. Good night Rob, Violet. Sleep well." Noel said, nodding, and headed over for Batgirl.

"He's quite a guy, isn't he?" Violet asked.

"Yeah." Rob muttered under his breath. "He's quite a lot of things."

"I apologize if I delayed any schedule you wanted to keep." Batgirl said as Noel reached her and she fell into step beside him.

"No problem. You feeling all right?"

"Yes. Do you have a plan for the night?"

"Sure. First we go visit my informants and find out what prying eyes and ears have seen and heard. And then we go find the criminal and the vile who thought that hiding in the cracks of Jump City would allow them to escape the notice of the young heroes on the island who seem to be more preoccupied with more colorful types, and we teach them a harsh lesson on why such an assumption is folly."

"Sounds good to me."

"Ah my dear Cassandra." Savior said as he cracked his knuckles. "There's nothing good about it."

* * *

Considering the general opinion he got from seemingly everyone he met while on his way, Jackal had wholly expected the need to punch in a secret code in the elevator to take him to a floor that wasn't registered on the Hiveathanas' blueprints to get where he wanted to go. But no: it was just a floor in the middle of the base, a floor he had just reached, as the elevator doors slid silently open, revealing a long hallway that stretched off into the distance.

Jackal headed down it, his boots making a low hollow echo as he walked. It didn't take him long to come to the door at the end of the hallway. The entrance was coded, and supposedly Blood was the only other one who knew the code. So Jackal pressed his fingers in and rewired the computer from the inside out. He put in his new code and the door opened.

The giant room that the door opened up to show was silent as a tomb.

Jackal walked in, looking around. Seemingly everything that a student of science could want or need. There was a chemical section, a mechanical section, a section Jackal recognized from his gigantic knowledge stores as an area to study viruses, and nearly half a dozen other places for other studies. Several very large computers dotted the room, which was as simplistic as possible: steel for walls and floor, steel and other metals for all other surfaces, occasionally some dull gray wood where it was needed.

The only variant was the large glass chamber in the center of the room that Jackal's eyes were now slowly being drawn to.

It was a massive rectangle of glass, at least twelve feet to each side, pressed firmly against the floor from where it emerged from the ceiling: at the top Jackal could see several mechanical apparatuses that he assumed controlling the lifting up, dropping down, and other functions of the rectangle. The glass wasn't clear, but it wasn't mirrored or completely obscured either.

Which allowed Jackal to see there was someone in it.

The glass was foggy enough to keep him from making out anything more then general shapes or movement. Jackal walked over. A quick stroll around the glass showed that there was no door. Not sure what else to do, or if the figure inside had even noticed him, Jackal reached up and knocked on the glass.

There was no answer. The figure didn't even seem to notice.

Jackal rapped harder.

Still no answer.

Jackal was smart enough to know when he was being deliberately ignored. And he had never much cared for it, as he placed his fingers on the glass wall and concentrated.

The wall shifted and then began to crumble, a hole being eaten away from the Jackal's hand, as he transformed the glass into sand.

As he finally got a clear view of the inside, he saw the figure stop, turn around, and watch Jackal as he made his own door. It blocked what was behind it mostly, so Jackal could just get a good look at the figure itself.

He supposed it was female, though it was hard to tell: the figure was wrapped in heavy layers of clothing that skewed its shape more towards male, especially around the shoulders. Her hair was covered in a surgeon's cap, her eyes were covered in dark goggles, and her mouth was covered with a facemask. The top layer of her clothes appeared to be a classic lab coat, over another layer of clothing over another one still. She wore buckled boots on her feet, the only part of her body that didn't seem overly large. She watched as the last of the glass disappeared, leaving a large hole for Jackal to walk in, if he wanted to. She looked down at the sand that had been glass a moment ago for a second, and then looked up at Jackal. If she had any expression, her facial coverings hid it.

"That was a plastisteel variant of my own design. A wrecking ball couldn't have cracked it." She said.

Jackal would have replied sooner, except he was thrown by her voice.

Jackal had heard dull voices before, voices that were flat and lacking inflection. But the voice that came out of the female before him…it was beyond that. She sounded exactly like a computer, minus any electronic tones. It was as if she had never spoken in a different way her entire life; that was how smooth and lacking in flaw the flatness was. Had Jackal known Viridian, he would have noticed a similarity in her speaking and this female, but Viridian didn't have a choice: her voice box was artificially constructed and she probably couldn't speak with much emotion in her voice even if she wanted to. This female before him was fully human…and yet she talked 'better' then a robot.

It threw him for a moment: he'd never heard a voice quite like that before. But it didn't last long.

"Let's just say a Sonic Screwdriver has nothing on me." Jackal replied.

"Agreed." The female said. "Move."

It wasn't a polite request, or even a request at all. It was a command, somehow delivered with absolutely authority without the voice changing an iota. It was a voice of a person that had sized another up and dismissed them in one breath. If such things offended Jackal, he probably would have taken her head off.

But he'd gone beyond such offenses now, at least when it came to minions. So he moved aside. She walked past him without a second glance.

"My correct assumption is that you are the new meta who has ousted Blood and assumed command of the Hive." The female said as she walked over to a computer. Jackal's eyes followed her for a bit, as she started taking off the surgical gloves she wore…gloves he saw were covered in blood. Remembering that she'd been standing in front of something, he turned to look.

Though in his heart he was not surprised, the degree of what he saw still stirred a mild reaction in him. And considering he was no stranger when it came to impossible manipulations of human flesh and bone, that was really saying something.

Laid out on the metal surgical table was something that might have once been a woman. Now it looked more like a frog high school children would dissect in biology class…except twenty times more elaborate. It would have given a Cenobite pause, what had been done to the body, which was also hooked up to various machines. Jackal would have made a deeper observation if he hadn't been distracted by the fact the female was speaking to him again.

"I will assume you do not know the details of the agreement Blood and I had. And by the fact you are the first to bother me after his expulsion, that you do not wish my absence." The female said, as she finished removing the upper layers of clothing she had been wearing, carefully placing them in a strange machine. With the layers removed, she wore a plain white bodysuit that showed a slim and muscled form, perfectly trained. A tad bit TOO perfectly, but Jackal would ponder that later.

"Perhaps. Are you Incandescent?"

"No." The female replied. "That is a name given to me by the fools under Blood, who insisted on putting a title on my vision. I do not answer to the name. I am Lucinda DaFoe. No less." Lucinda said, as she removed her face mask and surgical cap, as long golden blonde hair spilled out from underneath. From what he could see of her face, as she put the mask and cap into the machine as well, she was quite lovely, a pure cheerleader type, which was noted as he walked closer.

And then she reached up and removed her goggles, looking at him.

And suddenly Jackal knew exactly why Gizmo and Jinx had been terrified of Lucinda, why they didn't want to be in her presence, indeed, why any human would.

Jackal recalled Gizmo's description of Lucinda. She was a genius beyond compare, an IQ that literally could not be measured, surpassing even him (he said this very grudgingly) in the pure smarts scale, though he argued he was still a better mechanic. But Gizmo had said that this…well it clearly framed something that made his animal instincts scream, though he couldn't elucidate on just what it was.

But Jackal saw it.

Her eyes were a light blue.

And like her voice, Lucinda's eyes were dead. But this wasn't the dead of some street punk raised early on to believe there was no hope and no consequences mattered. No. Some violent little psychopath didn't hold a candle, didn't hold a whole Menorah candelabrum, to what was in Lucinda's eyes.

Because of what was behind the emptiness.

Intelligence was not something that necessarily showed on the face. General photos of Albert Einstein tended to show a man who looked a bit tired and dull, never indicating a brain behind the gaze that had formed the theory of relativity and made major contributions to Quantum and statistical mechanics. Leonardo Da Vinci's self-portrait in red chalk conveyed the same expression of a tired old man, never showing the great brilliance behind the lidded gaze. And Ken Jennings looked a lot more like a happy dork then the possessor of a mind filled to the brim with information and armed with a lightning quick set of reflexes that brought it to bear (though one could argue that Jennings' knowledge was a mile wide and an inch deep, but I digress…).

But sometimes it did show, whether in stereotype or unique quirks of facial structure or expression.

And sometimes…

No wonder her given code-name was Incandescent. There was a light in Lucinda's eyes, a brilliant, unbelievable light. Her intelligence was so great it literally shone through.

But this wasn't the light of a star or even the metaphorical light of humanity. It was a bad light, a…

Another random bit of information popped up in the Jackal's head. From the Stephen King magnum opus _It_, about a creature that lived under a small Maine town and preyed on children. While the book had been a bit vague and unclear about what It actually was, one could get that It was a creature from another realm of existence that had crossed over to the world of humanity, where it could assume any physical form it chose. When not consciously assuming a form, It could only been seen as human senses could be allowed to see it, in which case It appears as a nightmarish spider monster. But as said, that was only because humans lacked the function to see It as it truly was in their realm. In the final battle, the main character is transported to a strange world of imagination and dream, a world that allows him to cross over to the place where It originally came from. This is, however, a very bad thing, and the main character has to be rescued from doing so by a friend of his, pulled back from the brink of where It lives on the other side, where It existed only as "All-destroying light". A light that came from Its eyes. What King had termed the Deadlights.

Yeah. That fit all too well here. Lucinda's eyes were the Deadlights. The light that shone forth from them was the light of a void, the light of an all-consuming force that would destroy anything in its path. The light of a genius beyond compare…and nothing else.

She had nothing more beyond that gaze. No emotions. No heart. No humanity.

No soul.

No wonder the Hive children were terrified. They were, despite their powers and strange forms, still human. Lucinda wasn't. She wore the form of a human, but what came forth from her gaze was anything but.

Lucinda knew she was God.

She did not think, or believe, or insist.

She **_KNEW._**

And that fact even drove the Jackal to silence.

For a moment, before his own knowledge reasserted the truth of him.

"All right then. Lucinda."

Lucinda didn't reply, as she laid her goggles down in the carefully laid out clothing she had worn and pressed a button on the machine. The laid out attire slid into the machine, as Lucinda turned and walked over to another computer.

Jackal was aware of strange mechanical noises just before it nearly ran over his foot, as a large mechanical droid ran across the floor and to Lucinda. It was about the size of the large dog, in a general arachnid shape with six blurring legs. Had Jackal known of two teen superheroes who operated out of Dakota, and of the mechanical companion of one of them, he might have compared that droid to the one that ran across the floor and classified it as Backpak's evil twin. The droid hopped up on the computer array that Lucinda was typing at.

"Rig, replace the damaged section of the Study, then bring any results of the clothing scan to me." Lucinda said. The Rig, assumingly the name of the droid, hopped off the computer and skittered across the room, even as the rectangle of glass began to rise up from the floor, possibly from a silent computer command on Lucinda or Rig's part.

Jackal wasn't used to being ignored, but with Lucinda, he found he wasn't really surprised. Buzz Bomb had supposedly not been afraid of him because he had been raised in a strict household, but Lucinda was clearly incapable of feeling fear at all. She WAS like a computer placed in a human body: unstopping and unflinching in doing what she had to do. If something got in her way, she would deduce a solution to the problem and carry it out, never letting anything like doubt or fear enter her mind.

"You say you and Blood had an agreement." Jackal said.

"Yes. He allowed me the resources needed to discover the exact function of the truth, and in turn I had to discover a way to make him immortal. Do you wish the same, because it will take some time to adapt Blood's immortality to your considerably different form." Lucinda said, never looking at the Jackal.

"…No…I do not want to be immortal…that's not a problem." Jackal said. "I do have a list of orders for you."

"I do not take orders. If you wish to request something of me, I may consider it." Lucinda replied. Once again, her voice never changed a bit, but the will behind it was as indomitable as any god's. And why not? Lucinda was a true believer. Take any arrogant or foolish man or woman who believed quite highly of themselves, in various and mounting aspects, and put them under the right kind of stresses, and eventually they would break down and abandon the so-called truths of themselves they so firmly held onto. But not Lucinda. Jackal had a feeling you could torture her for a thousand years and she'd be saying the exact same thing she said when she started.

What a unique woman.

Perhaps…she could actually find a way.

"Very well then. Requests." Jackal said, as he literally willed a sheet of paper out of nowhere. He held it out to Lucinda, who spent several seconds finishing her typing before she turned away from the computer and took it, reading it quickly.

"…Have you miswritten this last request?" She asked. Jackal couldn't help but smirk. The wrong was always in others. It was impossible that she might have, say, misread the request. Jackal found it charming.

"No."

Lucinda looked up at him, analyzing him.

"Rig."

Jackal noticed that the Rig had come back into the room from another, carrying a large pane of glass assumingly to replace the one Jackal had 'Sonic Screwdrivered'. Since the pane was roughly fifteen times as large as the droid, the robot was carrying it with two energy tendrils that extended from its back, rather like the power Jackal had seen that white haired meta using earlier, though these tendrils were a pinkish red in color. The Rig set the giant pane of glass against the Study, as Lucinda had called it, and scurried over to its master.

"Scan."

A small device popped out of the Rig, and bathed Jackal in a greenish light. Before he could do anything except arch an eyebrow, the Rig finished and scurried over to the computer, hopping up and plugging itself in. Data began rapidly appearing on the screen, Lucinda studying it for a few seconds before turning back to Jackal.

"You are not human."

"You noticed?"

"If these readings are right, you possess everything any of those small minded wrecks could ever desire all wrapped up into one. Yet this last request…you want that."

"Yes."

"…Very well then. I can easily accomplish all your requests except the last: I will require extended research for that. But in return you will have to rework the agreement I had under Blood."

"Very well." Jackal said, as the Rig scurried back to the Study and resumed its task of replacing the glass section.

"Everything that was in Blood's agreement, I keep. I will tell you the details later."

"As you wish."

"I also want something else." Lucinda said, as she walked past Jackal said, as the machine she had put her bulky overtop clothes in opened up to reveal them. Lucinda began dressing once more, not saying anything else. A bit put off, Jackal walked over to her again.

"What else do you want?"

"I will inform you when my work is done. All I will say for now is that I believe it is vital for my discovery of the truth, and that is all that matters."

"The truth?"

"Yes."

"What is the truth?"

"I am going to save humanity from itself."

"Oh? Why do you feel the need for this?"

"Because it's broken."

Jackal arched an eyebrow and wondered if he wanted to continue down this line.

But curiosity, as the saying went, killed the cat.

"Humanity is broken."

"Yes." Lucinda said. "I assume that you want the truth explained to you."

"Do please."

"It is really quite simple. This species is incorrigibly flawed, and it needs to be fixed. I have seen this, and I will discover the way to fix it and finally bring this species into its chosen fate."

"I see." Jackal said. "And you believe this why?"

"As foolish as the rest. The answer is right before you. Look at them. Their history and lives. They walk through their everyday existences believing lies because they cannot stand the truth. To guard themselves from the basic truths of their existence, they have slaughtered each other for centuries, eons, made up higher beings and god who seemingly have a benevolent hand behind their creation, turned to science in an attempt to discover the inner workings of existence, all to try and tell themselves they are something special. Never wanting to understand what they really are."

"And that is?"

"Tools. And broken tools at that. I have seen the truth of this fact. All that remains is the exact truth behind what makes them broken. Once I discover that, I will fix it, and humanity will assume it's proper place."

"As tools."

"Yes."

"Under your command I would assume."

"Tools are to be used by those who understand them. I am the only one who understands. It is only right." Lucinda said, as she began stuffing her hair under the surgical cap.

"I see…so…what does that have to do with that body on the table?"

"Look at the world. So many variations, so many ways to be brought up, so much differentiation. Yet the dysfunction is universal. They all delude themselves, that they are happy, that they are free, that they are living the lives they want, from the richest lord with the world at his fingertips to the diseased bum who take what tiny spurts of joy he can in the oblivion of a bottle. None of them are happy, none are free. They are slaves to their petty desires, their niggling beliefs, their pettifogging hatreds and vices, their picayune fears. They all lie to themselves, deceive themselves, blind themselves to the truth. A tool that does not acknowledge itself for what it is is a tool that is not working properly. It has to be fixed." Lucinda said, as she finished by hanging the surgical mask around her neck and putting her goggles on her forehead. "This clear factor across all difference shows that it is not a factor of nurture. It is a factor of nature. So, somewhere in the folds of the human race, is the solution behind their flaw. I will find it, no matter how long I have to search. And once I do, I will save the world from itself."

"I see." Jackal said, as Lucinda walked up to the Study, as the Rig was finishing up replacing the pane of glass. "You are aware that this is not a new belief. That plenty have had it before."

Lucinda looked at Jackal, and while her eyes remained blank, not showing even the slightest hint of contempt (though that was because she did not know how to express such a thing rather then the feeling he was not deserving of it), with her eyes the way they were that was somehow worse.

"They were human. Deluded even in their beliefs of delusion. All of them. I am not. Therefore I am the answer."

"You look human to me."

"Looks are nothing compared to the truth. The truth I will find eventually. All great discoveries cannot escape being discovered forever, whether it be penicillin or the HIV virus." Lucinda said.

"And what do you plan to do when you find this flaw?"

"I will fix it. And humanity will finally enter its chosen use."

"As your tools."

"Yes."

"And all that stuff about freedom and caring and such and such will be made irrelevant."

The replacement was complete, and the Rig picked up the damaged glass plane with its energy tendrils and started carrying it away, as Lucinda looked at Jackal once more.

"They will not need any of it. They reason for existing will be achieved. They will be content. That is what they will know, that is all they will need to know."

"That's all they deserve?" Jackal asked.

"Deserve has nothing to do with it." Lucinda said, and walked over to her table. "Once I am done with my latest specimen, assuming I find nothing, I will go meet you. We will discuss the exact renegotiations of the agreement at leisure."

"If you wish." Jackal said, as he walked up a few steps. He still wasn't sure what to make of or to do with Lucinda. On one hand, her unbelievable mind might actually hold the key to his greatest desire, or at least tie into it. On the other hand, it would be impossible to use her or manipulate her. She may have acted like a computer, but she commanded enough aspects of the human animal to make her impossible to program. Actually getting her to work with him would be hard enough, let alone asserting any authority over her. Then again, she definitely wasn't like the other Hive members, who needed to know their place so they could properly aid him. Lucinda knew her place, and it was unassailable.

Savior. Visionary. God.

At least he had the assurance that she wouldn't usurp his leadership. For one thing, her quest for her truth was all that mattered: leading the HIVE was of no use to her. Plus, the Hive would never let themselves be led by her: not with the way she probably looked at them, wondering if their bodies held the truth she desired, wondering just how to cut them open and…

And then he saw it.

He had been a bit distracted before, so he hadn't noticed. But he saw it now.

Saw how the exposed lungs were moving…just a bit. Every so slightly. Still…pumping air.

And how the lone remaining eye…still had a spark of something in it.

Horror beyond belief.

Good lord, the girl was **_STILL ALIVE._**

Even Jackal couldn't hide some astonishment at that fact, astonishment Lucinda seemed to notice.

"The flaw is within the living human animal. Dead specimens…are only so much meat. The answer lies in the living. So living they remain." Lucinda said, as she put on a new pair of surgical gloves.

Jackal boggled at this. At the way Lucinda has cut the girl up, somehow keeping her life and mind intact…at what else she could possibly do…

And realizing with her brain, Lucinda probably still had thousands of routes she could explore.

And she'd want to explore as many as possible.

"…How?" Jackal could only ask.

"I am the one destined to find the truth. Such a truth has proven elusive. So I have become quite good in my hunt. Very, VERY, good." Lucinda said as she looked up at him one last time.

With that light behind her eyes…

When she put the goggles back on, it didn't help. Not now when he knew what was behind them. It still shone through. The goggles, as a certain famous comedic quote went, did nothing.

"I have to work now. Leave." Lucinda said.

And the Study began coming down again, sealing Lucinda away from the world once more, as she hunted for her specific godhood in the flesh of humanity.

Jackal stared at the Study for a few more seconds, and then turned and started leaving.

He'd need to give this some thought. Because despite the mild malaise she had stirred in him, Jackal could still see how extraordinarily useful Lucinda could be.

After all, he had no right to cast the first stone.

Yes, she'd be very useful. Possibly more so then all the other Hive members.

He'd give her what she wanted.

And she'd give him what he needed.

He left the room…and even then…he could still feel that vision boring into his back.

The Deadlights.

The horror, the horror.

_To Be Continued._


End file.
